Lead me out of the darkness
by Shirley007
Summary: One year after Freak nation, the battle against the Ordinaries has been won. Anti-transgenetic groups still cause the Manticore escapees to live in hiding. White is slowly closing in. How will they survive? Max and Logan at first, will be Max and Alec.
1. Chapter 1 : Joshua's flag

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Set : One year after Freak nation **

**Summary : A year ago, they have battled against the national guard and police forces, although they have won this battle, many losses have been made on their side as well.**

**The transgenetics are still not accepted in society and anti transgenetic groups are still out for their blood. White and his team are slowly closing in. How will they survive?**

**Pairing : Max and Logan, later Max and Alec.**

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**Joshua's flag : Max point of view**

As I sat underneath the flag Joshua made, I looked over at the burning crosses in front of our gates. Last year, we had hoped to make a stand and accomplish complete freedom.

I guess that was foolish of me to actually believe we would ever be completely free.

We had human friends, like Sketchy, OC, Logan and suprisingly Normal and some groups were actually petitioning for our human rights, but hatred was still the main feeling towards us. I couldn't even leave to go to the Space Needle anymore, since everyone recognized me from television. Ofcourse on rare nights, when there wasn't too much going on out on the streets, I would take my chances and venture out to the one place that always gave me a sense of peace. Logan made fewer and fewer trips into Terminal City, because of the Anti – Transgenetic movements that were usually parked right outside our door. It simply wasn't safe and I refused to let him live in here. Nobody deserves to be living in a cage, because that's what Terminal City has become. It was our shelter, but at the same time it had come to feel like a cage to me. The X series that looked human ventured outside on occasion for supplies or since they had day time jobs, but it was always a challenge to get past the haters outside undetected.

Last year, we had lost a lot of good men and women and somehow I couldn't help but think it was all my fault. Maybe, if I had listened to Mole we would have been able to rebuilt our lives somewhere safer or if we split up we might have gone unseen. I stared at the people throwing bottles and wood against our gates and sighed heavily.

"It's not your fault, Maxie." Alec's voice startled me and my head snapped to my left where he was now sitting beside me.

"Don't call me that. It's Max." I snapped out of reflex, before sighing heavily.

"Maybe, I should have listened to Mole." I said as I hugged my knees closer to my body.

"No, you made the right choice. If we had split up, we would have been easier to hunt down. Those groups would still be out for our blood and they would have been able to have more of it." Alec said as he swung an arm over my shoulder and pulled me into his side.

Alec and I had become a lot closer since the battle and although he still irked me beyond believe, I couldn't be anything but grateful to have him by my side, always watching my back and being there for me when I needed someone to lean on.

"But we lost so many, Druid, Dalton, Biggs, ..." I trailed of as the emotion threatened to choke me.

"And the ones before, that's also my fault" A tear ran down my face and although I turned my head away from him, he still caught it.

"Hey...Hey, it's not your fault okay. It's Manticore's fault, it's the Ordinaries, but never your fault. We're at war and with war comes casualties." Alec sais as he rubbed my back in a comforting gesture.

"That'a a lie, Alec! Zack died for me, I snapped Ben's neck myself. I'm poison, just like Renfro said back at Manticore." I said as I pushed Alec a little too rough, making him fall onto his back.

"You had no choice, Ben went psycho and he would have gone through hell if they took him back to Manticore, as for Zack he loved you and anyone would have done the same. Whatever it is that is coming, you are the one to save us all. We need you to stay strong." Alec said as he brushed himself of and gave me a stern look that didn't belong to his normal carefree nature.

"You are leading these people, Max! Now man up!" He said, before heading back inside.

I reluctantly listened to my second in Command as I put the Manticore mask firmly back in place and headed down to my office.

"Hey big fella." I said as I passed Joshua who was already working on another master piece.

"Hey little fella." He answered, giving me a sweet smile and then splashing another red streak on the canvas.

"What you painting?" I asked as I took a closer look to the mess of colours.

"You and Alec." Joshua answered as I tilted my head again, seeing nothing of the sorts.

"Well, keep up the good work." I said patting him on the back and continuing the way to my office.

"Max!" Sketchy called out as he ran towards me.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning towards the one human that never had the desire to leave after meeting Shorty, a tall blond X 5 that had joined us six months ago.

"We have four more X-6's coming in any second." He reported as his eyes were already looking for Shorty.

"Alright, show them around and then bring them to my office." I ordered, before walking through the door and letting myself fall into my chair.

_It's going to be a long day._

_**A short first chapter to start this off, but I hope you'll like it and send me lots of reviews.**_

_**Love,**_

_**Shirley**_


	2. Chapter 2 : Thunderdome

**Disclaimer : I do not own Twilight**

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**Thunderdome : Alec's point of view**

I watched her as she closed the door behind her and was determined to hide away again for the rest of the day. I sighed as I forced my eyes away from the door and looked over at Mule, who was playing poker with Zane.

I took some cash from my back pocket and threw it on the table.

"Room for one more?" I asked, not bothering to give them the time to answer as I sat down and kicked off my shoes.

After an half an hour and winning about seven hands in a row, I heard an annoying voice from behind me.

"Where's Max?" Logan asked and I just pointed towards the office, there was no way I was going to turn around and look at his pathetic 'can't-touch-the-woman-I-love-and-am-making-both-of-our-lives-miserable' face.

Mule, who had been seething just seconds ago claiming I was cheating, now gave me a smug sigh as I scowled at the two idiots.

"I'm out." I said as I took the money I had won and put it in my pocket.

I knew I shouldn't be doing this after being exposed along with Max last year, but doesn't a guy have the right to some peace?

I put on a pair of shades and pulled my hood over my head, before heading towards the roof.

_How did he even get past them?_

_It's crawling with Haters._

I forced Logan out of my head and spotted a blank spot at the far east side of the fence.

I quickly and stealthly made my way over and headed towards Seattle.

I had a pocket full of money and an itch that needed scratching, so I was certain I would make today a good day.

I made it to Crash without any problems and quickly surveyed the room as I entered.

I noticed 4 exits in case of emergency, entrance door, restrooms, private quarters through left door from bar and emergency exit to my right. Ordinaries seemed to all be occupied with themselves and their friends and no real threats according to their physiques.

I couldn't help myself, it had been stomped into us from childhood and Manticore regrettably left some residu's in our brain, like the whole scoping out the scene before advancing.

I moved calmly towards the bar and sat myself down on a stool, careful to keep my shades in place. I did however lower my hood, no need to arise unnecessary suspicion.

I spotted OC on a table with Normal and two leggy blonds. I ordered a pitcher of beer and got up from my stool. I moved towards my old friends, surely I would look a lot less suspicious surrounding myself with other people than sitting by myself. Also, I wouldn't mind tapping one of those blonds.

"Golden boy!" Normal exclaimed as soon as he spotted me and I smirked at him.

"No bip, bipping today, Normal." I said as I sat down and waited for them to introduce me.

"Hey boo, this my girl Kendra, she finally listen' to Original Cindy and kick that Walter creep to the curb." OC said as she hugged the blond and licked her lips suggestively, to which Kendra rolled her eyes and laughed it off.

"And this is my girlfriend, Kelly." Normal said as he introduced the other blond to me.

I was shocked, but didn't show it as I grinned widely at the man.

"Nice one, Normal." I said, before introducing myself making sure to keep constant eyecontact with Kendra.

"Original Cindy want ta know what hot boy is doin' out here." OC whispered as she looked around a little anxiously.

"Can't a man have a night out with his friends for once?" I said as I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Yeah yeah, but it's not safe for hot boy." Oc said pensively as she did another sweep of the room. She almost had me convinced she was one of Manticore's soldiers back in the day herself.

"I just need to get away for a moment alright." I said defensively.

"Aiight, but Original Cindy thinks hot boy should get his hot booty outta here before Haters get here." She said staring me down. I sighed and looked down into my glass.

"You need to get away from TC or Max?" OC asked suddenly, making me snap back to attention. Something in my face must have given away the answer, because OC looked apologetic.

"Look boo, ya gotta tell ta girl, aiight. My boo can be a bit blind, but Original Cindy has seen ta way you look at my boo. Ya can't keep it from her forever." OC said before getting up to get another pitcher of beer. I waited untill she returned and then quickly said my goodbyes.

Booze and women suddenly didn't sound so good anymore and I had this gut feeling that something wasn't quite right.

As soon as I left Crash I knew why I had felt that way. A black car was hot on my tail and I quickly headed into a dark alley, where I climbed the roof. I laid flat on top of it as I peeked down and that's when I saw him. White was looking out through the now lowered dark tinted windows and then motioned for the driver to go on.

I silently crossed town from rooftop to rooftop, untill I needed to get down and there he was already waiting for me.

"Son of a bitch." I cursed as I dived into an open window and made my way out through the back of the building. A black bike was standing there just begging me to steal it, so I didn't hesitate as I climbed on and hotwired it, speeding out of there with White right behind me.

I pulled out my cell and dialed the all too familiar number.

"_Alec?" _Max sounded frantic, so apparently she had already noticed my absence.

"Max, I've got White on my tail. Could you clear the path for me?" I said into the phone as I kept control of the bike with one hand.

"_You ass! What are you doing out there? You know they have seen us."_

"Can you insult my ass later? Now clear that path! I'm coming in in three." I said before snapping the phone shut.

As I rounded the corner, I quickly took assessment of the surroundings.

The Haters were too occupied with Mole, Max and Zane at the far west end, which left the ramp wide open.

_Thank you Max_

I drove up the ramp and over the fence, skidding to a stop once I landed.

Looking behind me I saw White's car had stopped just in front of the fence.

_That's right!_

_You're too chicken to come in here, too much manpower._

I whistled and Max turned her head towards me. I gave her a nod and she signalled the others to retreat.

Max ran over to me and jumped on the back of my bike as I revved it and drove it inside.

"Nice bike." She said appreciative.

"Thanks." I grinned as I looked over at her.

_She's so beautiful._

_Oh snap out of it, Alec!_

"You ass!" She suddenly yelled as she punched me in the arm, hard.

"Oh we're back to that are we? Well, yeah I know you have this thing with my ass, but couldn't you be a little more creative on occasion?" I quipped before shrugging off whatever she threw at me after that and heading over to Joshua.

There were 4 new arrivals standing next to Sketchy and I changed course towards them.

"Hi, I'm Alec." I said as I looked at the three females and one male.

"Tyra" The tall brunette said as she shook my hand firmly.

"Stripe." The blonde girl with pink highlights said as she smiled widely.

I grinned back at her and moved on to the next person.

"Gent." The male said as he squared his shoulders, his hands clasped together behind his back. I nodded at him and looked at the redhead.

"Sir, Kylie, sir." She barked like the good little soldier she was.

"Relax." I said as I watched 'Stripe' heading over to Max who pointed out a stereo system.

Max shashayed her way over to where we were standing and I felt my breath getting caught in my throat.

_Not now, Alec._

_No emotions._

_Show no emotions._

I plastered my standard grin on my face as she came to a full stop in front of me, just as loud music started to blare.

"Oh wow, we have Party Soldier on our side." I said as I watched the girl bouncing around.

"Shut up, I love this song." Max hissed, leaving me standing there dumbfounded as she headed towards Stripe.

_**Out of the ruins  
out from the wreckage  
can`t make the same mistake this time  
we are the children  
the last generation  
we are the ones they left behind  
and I wonder when we are ever gonna change  
living under the fear, till nothing else remains**_

_**we don`t need another hero  
we don`t need to know the way home  
all we want is life beyond  
the thunderdome**_

_**looking for something  
we can rely on  
there`s gotta be something better out there  
love and compassion  
their day is coming  
all else are castles built in the air  
and I wonder when we are ever gonna change  
living under the fear till nothing else remains**_

_**All the children say  
we don`t need another hero  
we don`t need to know the way home  
all we want is life beyond  
the thunderdome**_

_**So what do we do with our lifes  
we leave only a mark  
will our story shine like a light  
or end in the dark  
give it all or nothing**_

_**We don`t need another hero  
we don`t need to know the way home  
all we want is life beyond  
the thunderdome**_

"Sounds like us. After Manticore." Joshua remarked at the end of the song.

I hummed my agreement and continued watching Max as she danced along with Stripe and several other females that had joined them by now.

"Hell, I don't mind some fun, crank up that volume, Gent!" I said as the next song came on and I headed over to the masses.

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**So Alec is rather infatuated with Max.**

**What will happen now?**

**And what is White up to?**

**Let me know what you thought.**

**Reviews please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	3. Chapter 3 : Abort

**Disclaimer : I don't own Dark Angel**

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**Abort : Max's Point of view**

We were having a lot of fun, just dancing around like regular people, when I noticed the time.

I swore inwardly as I headed over to my bed to get changed and prepare for the mission Logan asked me to help him with.

I knew I was being a little bit hypocritical, first scolding Alec for leaving and now sneaking out myself. But I had a mission, a purpose to put myself in harms way. Alec just wanted to get his kicks and that was not excusable. I quickly pulled on my black jeans, black top and zipped up my black leather jacket, before tying my combat boots.

As I glanced over at the common area, they were all still dancing and acting out.

I quietly stuck to the walls as I made my way over to where my bike was parked.

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice startled me and I froze with my leg half across the seat. I put my foot back down to the ground and turned around to face a seemingly very vivid Alec.

"There's something I've got to do." I said dismissively as I turned to leave again.

To my surprise Alec grabbed a hold of my arm.

"I don't think so." He said as he glared at me not loosening his grip on me.

"Weren't you the one telling me I was an ass for going outside? Why would you do it yourself then? Besides White might be lurking around out there after him almost getting me caught earlier." Alec tried to reason me out of doing it.

"I need to go, Logan asked me..."I didn't get to finish, because his anger just got kicked up another notch.

"Logan? You are kidding me right? You're going out alone. On a mission! With White, the Haters and the police force breathing down our necks! Max, call it off! You can't do this!" His face was the standard emotionless mask from back in Manticore, but his voice and the soft shaking of his hands betrayed how pissed he really was about this whole thing.

"I promised Logan." I argued feebly.

"Oh and that makes everything alright. You promised Loverboy and then you just have to get yourself killed." He said sarcastically, with no hint of humor in his face like he normally would.

"Alec! I'm doing this, with or without your consent!" I said as I revved the engine of my black Ninja.

"Then I'm coming with." Alec suddenly said, surprising me again.

"No, you're not! It's dangerous enough on my own, together we would definitely get spotted." I quipped and watched his shoulders slump for just a second.

"Then at least check out the perimeters first! You didn't even bother to watch what's going on just outside those gates." Alec said, making me feel foolish for just a second.

"I'll do it." He sighed, when I kept quiet a little too long for his liking.

In a blur he was gone as I sat impatiently on my Ninja.

_Why is he overreacting like this?_

_I've never seen Alec like this._

_What could be going on?_

I didn't have time enough to figure it out though, because I heard him approaching from my left side.

"I put a ramp on the east side of the fence. You'd be able to land behind the dumpster and make your escape through the alley on your left." Alec said and I nodded in appreciation, before speeding off.

I made it to the adress Logan gave me without any disturbances and quickly picked the lock.

It looked so ordinary and cheap for someone who supposedly had some very important data concerning Manticore and the little experiments they did back there. I looked around the disgusting appartment with so much mould on it's walls that the green wallpaper was hanging loosely from the walls. The floor looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years and I even thought I saw some funghus on what looked like spilled juice. I shuddered as I walked over to the single computer that predated the Pulse by the looks of it. A sudden click alerted me and I swerved around to stare directed into the barrel of a gun.

"Don't you fucking move." The man holding the gun said. He had dark hair and blue eyes, appeared to be in his mid thirties and was very well built.

I blurred to the side with every intention of kicking the gun out of his hand, but he moved with equal speed as he turned towards me and fired. The bullet hit me in the shoulder and I grabbed my wound out of reflex. I blurred again and stretched my leg out intend on hitting him in the chest, but another shot rang and hit me in my upper arm.

_Who is this guy?_

_Is he one of us?_

_No, then he would be in TC by now, not pumping lead into my body._

"Erm...I think I have the wrong appartment. Sorry." I whispered as I started to walk back slowly, not taking my eyes off of my opponent.

"Not so fast, 452." The man said as he advanced towards me.

_He knows who I am._

_Abort! Abort! _

I didn't hesitate, as soon as the warning bell rang in my head, I ran.

The man shot me one more time as I revved the engine of my bike, he hit me in my back and I slumped forward a little on my bike. Driving was hard with my wounds, but I forced myself to stay alert and tune out the pain.

I reached the alley that would lead to the dumpster in front of our gates and pushed my bike to go faster, but my muscles were weakening fast from the puncture wounds and just as I rounded the corner to conceal myself behind the dumpster, I lost control over my bike.

The Ninja's front wheel hit the fence first, making it lift itself in the air and then fall back. I was trapped underneath my bike and didn't have enough strenght to lift it off me. I could hear the Haters moving towards me, since the sound of my accident hadn't gone unnoticed.

I had always been able to stay calm and levelheaded in any given situation, but this time I simply couldn't. My heart started to beat faster, my blood pumped through my veins at an enheightened speed and my breaths came in short gasps as fear ran through me.

_Get a grip soldier!_

_You are going to hyperventilate and pass out if you keep this up._

_Then you are doomed for sure._

_Slow breaths, slow down your heartrate._

_Focus!_

_That's it, concentrate on your heart beat._

As I felt myself calm down and my vision cleared again, I saw something blurring past me.

My bike was lifted off of me and then I saw him.

Alec lifted me up into his arms and did a quick assessment of my injuries.

"Shit." He swore as he saw both sides were injured which would leave me incapable to hold onto him as he climbed the fence. He cursed even louder as he twisted his arms a little exposing my back and noticed the wound there, which made it harder for me to use the force in my legs.

"How's the strenght in your legs?" He asked as he tried to put me to ground.

As soon as my feet touched the ground, I tried to walk and although my back was killing me, I could still walk. I nodded at him and he flipped me onto his back.

"Squeeze them together like only you can, Maxie." Alec said as I used all the muscles in my leg to keep a good grip on his torso, just above his waist.

"You ass!" I hissed at his jab, the sexual innuendo not lost to me or lack of sex in that statement.

"Still obsessing over my ass, I see. Then you can't be hurt that bad." He said as he started to climb the fence.

"You wish." I spat.

"No no, Maxie. You got that all wrong. You wish." He quipped as he balanced himself on the fence.

"Shut up!" I snapped back at him. His soft laughter sounded as he jumped down from the fence, landing with perfect grace onto the soles of his feet and running inside.

His face changed the instant he put me down onto the bed and started working on me.

"Dammit, Max! Why do you keep listening to that guy?" He yelled as he wiped my brow that had gotten sweaty. Then he started pulling out the bullets, digging around in there like he was looking for the meat in spaghetti sauce. I clenched my teeth, but didn't give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

He cleaned the wounds and stitched them up best he could.

When he turned me over to work on the one that had gone in through the back, he cursed.

"Fucking bastard! I'm gonna kill him." He hissed, keeping his voice low as he prodded inside much gentler than before. From what I could tell from his movements, the bullet had barely missed my spinal cord and he needed to watch out before he inflicted any damage himself.

"You don't even know the guy." I croaked as I sucked in a deep breath as he started to tug at the bullet.

"I'm not talking about whoever did this, I'm talking about 'Formerly known as Hot Wheels'! I'm tired of him sending you on these suicide missions! This ends now!" He growled as he gave a vicious tug and then I heard the tinkling of the final bullet being dropped in the bowl.

"This isn't Logan's fault." I argued weakly as he taped up my final wound.

"The hell it isn't! What happened anyway?" He snapped at first, but then evened out his voice as he sat back and looked intently at me.

"Maxie?" he prodded, when I didn't answer him immediately.

"Don't call me that! My name is Max." I said, knowing this always managed to put a smile or at least a grin on Alec's face.

Regrettably it didn't this time and he just furrowed his brow telling me to get on with it.

"I think it was one of White's men." I said simply, watching in amazement as Alec's face turned murderous and then he jumped up.

"So you're telling me, loverboy sent you straight into a trap!" He yelled as he waved his arms around angrily. I kept silent, thinking that was the best thing to do and not really knowing how to handle this angry Alec. Obviously, I wasn't doing the right thing though, because suddenly he stalked out of the room only pausing to put his fist into the wall, before walking out the door.

I tested my strenght for a second and feeling confident enough I could walk, I set out to follow him.

"Hey Mole, where's Alec?" I asked as I spotted him playing cards with Gent and Zane.

"Out!" Was all he said and I felt the blood drain from my face.

_Logan!_

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**So I hope you liked it.**

**Review please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	4. Chapter 4 : Rage

**Disclaimer : I don't own Dark Angel**

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**Rage : Alec's point of view**

I ran at my maximum speed towards the fence and climbed over effortlessly. I didn't even stop to take my bike, too focused on Logan as I ran street in and street out, only slowing down when there were Ordinaries around and finally I ended up at Logan's building.

The ride up with the elevator was torture and I clenched my fist so hard that my knuckles turned white as the adrenaline ran through my body. I didn't bother knocking as I just lifted my foot and kicked in the door.

I let my eyes drift across the living room, where there was no sign of Logan. I took a couple of steps and looked behind the screen over to where his computers were, but again found no Logan. My anger flared again as I heard a soft snoring coming from the bedroom.

_He sends Max out there to get killed and he's sleeping!_

_That bastard really has it coming!_

I bristled as I walked into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

Computerboy shot upright in his bed from the noise and looked at me questioning before rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Alec, what are you doing here?" He said in that tone of voice that just didn't sit well with me, since it sounded like he thought himself better than me.

_I'm an Alpha male for God's sake!_

_I get exactly what I want and when I want it!_

_I'm the superior one here!_

_Except for Max._

_You never did get Max._

"What am I doing here? What am I Doing Here!" I sounded a little manical, but I didn't care as I stalked him like a predator preying on the weak.

Logan unconsciously moved back in his bed and my eyes narrowed further.

I threw my fist and heard a satisfying crunch as his nose broke, but it wasn't enough to get me out of my rage.

"I won't stand for it anymore! You leave Max alone! Do you hear me?" I had a dangerous glint in my eyes and my voice dripped with venom as I glared at him from the end of his bed.

"What? Alec, you can't dictate me or Max on how to live our lives." He had the audicity to say with his head tilted back, trying to stelp the bleeding of his nose..

"You listen to me, buddy! I just removed three bullets from Max's body because you sent her into a fucking trap with one of White's puppets waiting for her. She could have died tonight and it's All Your Fault!!" I watched as Logan gasped and quickly adjusted his glasses.

_Fucker_

"Is she alright?" He asked with worry in his voice as he looked expectantly at me.

"She will be. I saved her from the Haters when she was too weak to move her bike off of her. I took out the bullets she got from your stupid little mission. I bandaged her up and I'll make sure she's alright. But YOU! I don't ever want to hear you talking to her again. You'll really get her killed one day. So leave her alone!" I watched him getting up from the bed and smirked inwardly.

My fists were itching for another excuse to plant themselves in his face. My palms were itching to wrap themselves around his throat. My feet were itching to kick the shit out of him and my knees were dying to hit them in his family jewels.

"I always knew you had a thing for Max, but nothing you will ever say or do will break us apart. So back off." Mister Arrogance said as he moved to stand right in front of me.

_Big mistake._

I kicked him in the gut sending him flying against the opposite wall. As his body slithered down, I strided confidently over at him.

"You listen to me, Logan. Whatever you think you might know about me, you got it all wrong. Max however is my CO and saved my ass on more than one occasion. It's only natural that I watch over her and you, my friend are absolutely wrong for her. I'm just looking out for me and mine and without Max TC would be in chaos. You are jeopardizing her life, gambling with it every time you send her on one of those ridiculous missions. Enough is enough! So leave her alone!" I had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up the wall by the end of my little speech, but Max's voice infiltrated my mind. She wouldn't want me to hurt him and would probably hate me if I hurt him too badly. I released my grip on his neck and let him drop onto the floor.

"Is that clear?" I growled out as I looked over at the heaving mess at my feet.

"Crystal." He croaked and I nodded at him, before stalking out of the room.

It really went against all of my instincts to leave him like that, but I couldn't do that to Max.

I contemplated heading back to TC, but I needed to cool down a little before facing Max.

I don't know how it happened, but one moment I was walking past the Blowfish and the other I was in my old appartment with myself burried deep into Rachael, a redhaid I had known before, because she worked at the Blowfish, a place Sketchy and I had visited often.

"Alec, ...harder, faster!" She gasped and I obeyed as I hitched up her legs higher and lost every inch of my control. I pounded into her relentlessly, letting out all of my anger and pent up sexual frustration for the last couple of months.

"Alec!" She screamed as she clenched around me and her orgasm triggered my own.

I felt myself growing inside of her and then a blinding light clouded my vision as my seed shot into the condom I had wisely put on.

"Maaaaaaaax!" I roared as I let myself fall down on top of her, still burried deep within her.

I cringed when it finally registered in my orgasmic state of mind that I had called out Max's name.

"What did you just call me?" Rachael asked as she tried to push me off of her.

"Rachael." I stated, figuring it would be better to play dumb.

"No, you called me Max. You never did that before. Who is she?" The jealousy in her voice wasn't lost to me as I pulled up my pants and got dressed quickly.

"No one." I said dismissively as I looked over at the naked redhead sitting on my bed.

I noticed she was covered in bruises and scratches and reprimanded myself for losing control with an Ordinary.

"Bullshit!" She spat as she slowly got up from the bed and slowly got dressed herself, still waiting for an explanation.

"Look, forget about it okay. I've got to go. Lock the door behind you and leave the key in the mailbox." I said as I made to move.

"When will I see you again?" She asked in a small voice, making me stop in my tracks.

_Shit!_

_I should have remembered Rachael was the clingy type._

"Erm...I don't know. You do remember I don't do relationships right? Sure, it was fun, but that's all it is." I said uncomfortably as I reluctantly looked back at her.

She looked crestfallen, making me feel like a total shit for using her like that, but nodded anyway.

"Goodbye Rachael." I whispered, before practically running out of there.

I checked every street twice before walking down it. I might have been reckless earlier because of my anger, but after the chase White gave me before I wasn't going to be careless now.

It took me about an half an hour to reach Terminal City, but I made it without any fuss.

I quickly headed over the gate and headed straight for my bed, feeling like every bit of life had been drained from me after tonight.

Ofcourse, I never made it as one beautiful, olive skinned, darkhaired X5 held me back.

"What did you do?" The glaring beauty asked and I needed a moment to compose myself.

"Oh chill out, already. Logan's fine, I just broke his nose." I said trying to get her off my back.

"You broke his nose?" The question was rhetorical and I could see the fire in her eyes spark.

"Yeah, I did." I said curtly and then she entirely dropped the subject to my surprise.

"Then why do you smell like sex?" She asked as I stood rooted to the spot.

_Was she jealous?_

_Disgusted maybe?_

_Oh God, she better not think that Logan and me..._

I shivered involuntarely at that thought and turned to look at her.

I wanted to get angry, I wanted to crawl away in a hole, I wanted to hide my face in shame, but I plastered my trademark grin on my face and said the first thing that popped into my head.

"Why? Jealous you haven't gotten a piece of me yet, Maxie?" I purred.

"Don't call me that! My name is Max! You wish, pretty boy." She said as she lifted an eyebrow at me, challenging me.

"Mmm, pretty boy huh. So you think I'm pretty?" I smirked at her and watched as her face reddened with frustration.

"You wish." She said again and I almost said yes, but clenched my jaw and gritted my teeth.

"You say that a lot. I think your record got stuck a little." I bit as I turned away from her.

_Why did I let her affect me in this way?_

"You ass!" I rolled my eyes at her lack of creativity.

"Bitch." I quipped.

"Jerk." She retaliated.

I didn't know what possessed me, but I was getting so frustrated with her that I just grabbed her by the upper arms, as she stood unsteadily on her feet, she crashed into my chest and I automatically wrapped my arms around her. She stiffened in my embrace, but then looked up at me with those questioning doe eyes and I couldn't stop myself to save my life.

I crushed my lips to hers and moved my mouth frantically on hers. At first she didn't respond, but as I sucked on her bottom lip, she started to actively kissing me back. She even shocked me by licking my bottom lip asking entrance to the heath of my mouth.

I opened up eagerly and as our tongues battled, I moaned at the taste of her.

Nothing had ever tasted this good and I pulled her even closer as all sense left my already clouded mind.

Her hands found there way around my neck and I had one hand in her hair, the other on her back keeping her close to me.

Suddenly she moaned, but it didn't sound like a moan from pleasure, it sounded like she was in pain. It took me a second to realize that I was holding her on her lower back and was putting pressure on her gunshot wound. I released her quickly and as soon as our minds caught up with what had just happened, Max was already gone.

_Shit!_

_Nice going, Alec._

_Now you scared her off for good._

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

_Best kiss ever though._

I sighed as I undressed, hoping that things wouldn't be too weird between us tomorrow and she would give me a chance.

I laid down on my bed and was asleep almost instantly.

It had been one hell of an emotional draining day.

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**I hope you liked it.**

**Review please.**

**And a big thanks to Recicup for reviewing so regularly :)**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	5. Chapter 5 : Confusion

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel. **

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**Confused : Max's point of view**

It had been three weeks since I went out on a mission for Logan and got shot by one of White's goons. Three weeks without a word from Logan, no matter how many times I tried to call him and three weeks of trying to avoid Alec at all cost after sharing the most mindblowing kiss ever.

I felt like I was stuck in some bizarre alternative universe or something, since Logan wouldn't stop paging me before the mission and now I suddenly seemed to have become air to him.

Alec tried to talk to me on more than one occasion, but I just couldn't face him.

The fact that his presence did strange things to my body lately wasn't helping either.

I sat in my office, hidden away from view like had become my usual routine and once again saw the image of Alec before my eyes. The way he had grabbed onto my arms and the look of pure determination and lust in his eyes, right before his mouth came crashing onto mine's.

I put my head in my hands and groaned loudly, trying to replace Alec's image with one of Logan.

_How could you have cheated on Logan?_

_Did he know?_

_Was that why he was avoiding me?_

_Then who told him?_

_Would Alec stoop that low?_

_And why would he want to do that?_

_Surely, he only wanted me to be another notch on his belt?_

_Are you sure about that?_

_He never really tried to talk to any of those bimbo's he slept with before?_

_Exactly, he slept with them. Not with me._

_Would he continue this little game untill he got into my pants?_

_Maybe he's sorry for jeopardizing your friendship and workrelationship?_

_Oh yeah, that sounds like Alec alright. Not!_

_What the hell is going on?_

_I need to talk to Logan._

_I need to know what he knows and why exactly he's avoiding me._

I rose from my chair and headed towards my office door, but before I could reach it, the door swung open.

"Maxie..." Alec started as he stood in front of me with his hands digged deep into his pockets.

"I don't have time, Alec. I need to go see Logan." I said as I tried to move around him, but he always moved with me, preventing me from getting away.

"Logan? Did he call you?" Alec asked with a dangerous undertone to his voice.

His narrowed eyes were scrutinizing my face as he waited impatiently for me to answer his question.

"No, he didn't." I said, as I tried to get past him again.

"Then why are you risking yourself by driving over there?" Alec asked with disapproval in his voice.

_What's going on?_

_What happened to cocky, smartass Alec?_

"I need to talk to him." I said, before realizing what I was doing.

"Why am I explaining myself to you anyway? MOVE!" I growled and Alec's slits narrowed even further.

"I don't think so. The guy put you in danger, you walked straight into a trap and then you're going to run after him when he is the one that ignored you for three weeks." As much as I wanted to deny it, Alec's words made sense and I reluctantly walked back behind my desk.

"Can we talk now?" Alec asked as soon as I had sat down.

"Keep it bussiness." I answered, to which he sighed and shook his head.

"Nevermind." Alec said as he walked back out of my office without another word.

I picked up the supply list and noticed we were running low on food and tranquilizer darts.

There had been quite some female X5's and X6's going in heat lately and we had to resort to tranquilizing the males to avoid total destruction of this place, since the males would fight with all they had when someone got in the way. The females were sedated as well and placed into a private room with two other females standing guard.

I knew I was getting close to my own heat and cursed Manticore again for making us the way they did.

I walked to my door and opened it a little, just enough for my voice to carry out towards the others.

"Stripe!" I yelled and I waited patiently for her to arrive.

When I saw her approaching, I quickly grabbed the list and pushed it into her hands.

"You and Gent have to go into town for some supplies. Look out for the Haters and White. Just because we haven't heard from him in three weeks doesn't mean he isn't still out there and waiting for us." I said quickly and as soon as she nodded and saluted me I closed the door.

_I hate when they do that._

_What do I look like?_

_That Renfro bitch?_

_Lydecker?_

_Hell no!_

I decided to take a shower and just relax for a little bit, so I headed over to the common showers. It was late in the afternoon, so I wasn't worried about anyone else being in there.

But even if there was, it never bothered me. Back in Manticore we had joint showers daily and we had learned not to look at another or let it affect us in any way.

_Unless it's Alec in those showers._

_I'm sure you wouldn't be able to keep your eyes to yourself then._

_Oh for God's sake, shut up already!_

_Damn Alec has my head all screwed up wrong._

As I left the office, I passed by Joshua who was painting yet again.

"What happened to the last one?" I asked as I looked around for his last project.

"Alec took it." Joshua said, painting a black curvy line.

"Why? Is he going to fence your work again?" I said with a hint of anger in my voice.

"No, Alec like painting of him and Max. He took it." Joshua said, before looking over at her.

"Little fella okay?" He asked as he scrutinized her face.

"Yes, I'm just fine. Just need to take a shower you know." I said as I moved to walk away.

"No, little fella not okay. Alec also not okay. Little fella need to talk to Alec." Joshua said as he put his big hand on her shoulder.

"Why would I do that? I don't want to talk to that arrogant-" I got cut off by Joshua's penetrating look.

"Little fella not fool Joshua. She confused. Little fella need to talk to Alec. Not be confused anymore." Joshua said and I nodded quickly, intent on getting him off my back so I could get to my hot shower and forget today and all days since that kiss had ever happened.

I walked briskly over to where the showers were and undressed quickly.

I turned on the water and as the scalding water started to steam up the area, I finally stepped in. I could feel the tension leaving my body and sighed happily.

"Hey will you stop hogging all the hot water?" Alec's voice broke through my content state of mind.

"Shit!" I cursed as I felt like banging my head against the wall.

"Maxie?" He questioned as he moved back a little and looked into her shower.

"It is you." He remarked like a dumbass.

"What are you doing here Alec? Won't you just leave me alone for one second?" I growled in frustration as I foolishly looked over at him.

My eyes hungrily looked over at his defined abs, his muscular chest, his strong jaw and finally those green sparkling eyes. His cocky grin was already plastered on his face as my eyes met with his.

"Do you like what you see, Maxie?" He asked as he smirked.

"Oh shut up, you ass!" I growled, before turning away to hide the blush that slowly crept upto my face.

"Thanks, Max, I really needed some new lines. Don't think I ever heard that one before." He said, his normal smartass behaviour irritating and arousing at the same time.

I let out a frustrated groan, to which he only laughed.

"What's wrong, Maxie? Can't take the challenge. I thought you would have kicked my ass by now." I could still hear the laughter in his voice and since he was getting on my last nerve, I swerved around quickly, crouching down in a fighting position.

His eyes widened and he took the same stance, untill his eyes focused on my breasts.

He licked his lips and I could feel my body heat up as my eyes zeroed in on that pink tongue.

_Focus, soldier._

I snapped myself out of it to find him still staring at my chest. I took advantage of the situation and kicked out his legs from under him.

I put my foot on his chest as he laid sprawled out on the bathroom floor.

"Now leave me alone for five fucking minutes." I growled, before grabbing a towel and walking out of the bathroom.

Normally, I would have fought him longer, but seeing him in his naked glory made me want to do all kind of things I just didn't want to think about. Certainly not with Alec, so I used the first opportunity to get the hell out of there.

I locked myself up in my office again for the duration of the day, wondering what would eventually happen between me and Alec and trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

_Let's hope tomorrow is a better day._

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**Well what did you think?**

**Reviews please.**

**I want to have them hook up soon, but couldn't just throw them into something without Max putting up a fight first. **

**That just doesn't sound like her.**

**Untill next time.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	6. Chapter 6 : Nightmares

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thanks for the reviews :)**

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**Nightmares : Alec's point of view**

_"There never was a Rachel. She is just someone you made up." The voice whispered into his ear as the red beam burned in my eye, showing me picture after picture._

_DUTY_

_DISCIPLINE_

_MISSION_

_"No, Racheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!" I cried out as the car exploded in front of me._

"_She has been dying for years." Robert said, as he pointed the gun at my head._

"_I never knew. I didn't understand." I said brokenly as I grabbed a hold of the woman lying unmoving on the bed._

"_I need you." I said burrying my face in her chest, crying for the first time in my life._

"_She doesn't exist!" The voice claimed as I sat in darkness, locked in an isolation cell for 6 days straight. _

_Not sure if I was hearing things or not._

_-  
_

"_What's your name, X5-494?" A man asked as he glared down at me._

"_My designation is X5-494, Sir." I barked as I kept my eyes on a blank spot on the wall._

"_Are you sure you don't have a name?" The man asked again._

"_Sir, no name, Sir." I barked again._

"_Well, let's look in that pretty little head of yours and find out if you are as psycho as your brother, will we?" He said, before a needle pricked my arm._

_-  
_

_Pictures of the runaway unit started to follow up in quick succession._

"_What are they, soldiers?" Lydecker asked as we sat are our desks._

"_RATS! TRAITORS!" We all barked with each picture._

_When a picture of my twin was shown, the word didn't want to leave my mouth._

"_X5-494! Who is this?" Lydecker asked as he pointed his long stick towards me._

"_Sir, X5-493, Sir!" I answered._

"_What is he, 494?" Lydecker asked softer now._

"_A rat, a traitor, Sir!" I responded, this time managing to get the words out, however forced they might be._

_He looked reflective._

"_Report to Psy-Ops in the morning, 494!" He ordered._

"_Sir, yes, Sir!" I barked, before sitting back down._

_-  
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_I watched the tenyear old me, being strapped to a chair and that's when the image shifted to Max._

"_Rat! Traitor!" It sounded from all around, before everyone attacked her._

"_Maaaaaaaaaaaaax! Nooooooooooooooooooooo!"_

_-  
_

I shot upright in my bed. My breath was heaving as I felt the sweat run down my face, neck and even my spine. It had been a long time, since I had such a horrible nightmare. The last one was after Rachel died and I managed to say goodbye in my own way, untill her father sent me away and forbad me of ever visiting her grave again. I could still feel myself shuddering as all the children we used to be attacked the woman I loved and walked towards the bathroom in a daze. I splashed my face with water and gripped the sink hard, trying to get a hold of myself.

_Is this an omen?_

_Is something going to happen to her?_

_Am I going to hurt her in some way?_

_What does this mean?_

_Stop overthinking it, Alec, it's just a bad dream._

I walked back towards my room, but something pulled me in the other direction and I turned half way down the hall. I looked into the room where Max was sleeping, expecting to find her sleeping peacefully. Instead, she was tossing and turning, kicking violently at something invisible. My heart broke as her face came in view and she looked so tortured.

When she started sobbing in her sleep, I couldn't stop myself and moved into her room.

My hand moved of it's own accord as it gently caressed her cheek and a warm tingle ran through my hand up my arm.

Her eyes fluttered open and when she caught me standing there she pulled back the sheets and scooted over. I didn't need to think twice about that and quickly crawled into bed with her.

"I'm so sorry." She sobbed as she snuggled into my side. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"Sssh, it's okay now." I said as I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"I miss this. You were always there for me and I...I killed you." She said as she started crying even harder. My heart broke when I realized she had mistaken me for Ben. She must have thought she was still dreaming when she invited me into her bed.

"Tell me about before, please. Tell me a story, Maxie." I whispered as her arm sneaked around my waist. I knew I what I was doing was wrong and cruel, but I didn't want to leave her like this and I really wanted to understand the relationship she had with Ben.

She once told me about it, but I had a feeling they were more like clipnotes.

"It was always Zack, you and me. Us against the world in a way. I would often get the shakes and you would stay with me, crawling in my bed and holding me untill they went away. Or if I had a nightmare I would crawl in Zack's or your bed, whoever was awake and invited me in. You always called me Maxie and it hurts when Alec says it now, cause it always reminds me of you. You were so smart, Ben, always making up stories about things that frightened me or things we couldn't understand.

"You would sit on the bed at night, telling all of us a story, using your hands to make motion pictures on the wall and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. You were so scared for me, Ben, afraid that Lydecker would give me to the anomolies if he knew how bad my shaking had gotten. You always told us how the weak soldier would be brought down to the basement where the anomolies would eat us for all eternity and how the strong soldiers would go to that good place where they would be happy forever. You wanted me to be strong, but when they took away Jack, your fear grew.

When I fell and couldn't stop shaking, we all watched in fear as the guard got closer.

I knew you and Zack would protect me, but I never expected it to go that far.

Little Eva might have taken the gun, but you and Zack were the real saviors. I will never forget the real reason we left. It was to save me, wasn't it?" She sounded so vulnerable that I tightened my hold on her. During her story, I had wrapped my arms around her and she had curled into me like a ball. However much I might of despised Ben and Zack in the past, I couldn't now. They were the reason Max was still here today.

"Ofcourse, Maxie. We all loved you." I said as I kept my voice low.

"Hmm" She hummed as her warmth infiltrated me and together we dozed off into a much needed sleep.

The last thing I remembered was Max gripping my hand and holding on tight as if it was her last lifeline.

I thanked my lucky stars, when I woke up and Max was still asleep.

Usually, she would be up for hours already because of her shark – DNA, but this night's talk must have taken a lot out of her. I soundlessly slipped from her bed and headed back to mine.

A couple of things I knew for sure now.

First, my twin and Zack had always really loved her and secondly, I would never call her Maxie again.

If I had known the amount of pain I caused her, I never would have started calling her that.

I had only seen the way she would get irritated with me for using the pet name.

I could just kick myself for being that stupid right now.

And I hoped above all things, that she would still think it was all a dream in the morning.

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**So what did you think?**

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**Untill next time.  
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**Love,**

**Shirley**


	7. Chapter 7 : Training

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thank you for the reviews, I'm glad to see that more of you are reviewing now :)**

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**Training : Max's point of view**

As soon as I woke up, I reached out for Ben, although I knew he had been a dream.

My eyes that had been fluttering snapped wide open as I felt the lingering warmth of his body and I rolled over towards the warmth, burrying my face into the still warm pillow.

_How could this be?_

_Dreams don't give off warmth._

I sniffed, expecting to smell the typical scent of pines that belonged solely to Ben, instead I smelled leather, musk and cinnamon.

_Alec!_

I growled inwardly as I hurried out of bed and stalked off towards the showers. If I were to burst into his room now, I would surely kill him and I enjoyed these early showers, since most were still asleep and I didn't have to worry about the hot water and who might see me.

Not that I minded been seen, but privacy was something I had quite come to like over the past eleven years.

_Why would he let me believe he was Ben?_

_Would I have told him that much if I had known he was Alec?_

_Probably not._

_Why didn't I notice his scent before?_

_Or maybe I didn't want to smell._

_Maybe, I just wanted to believe it was Ben and he still loved me, even after what I had done to him._

The first tears running down my face surprised me.

I let myself slid down the wall and hugged my knees as more tears fell.

_I let my brothers save me, then I kill both of them in my own way._

_I snapped Ben's neck and I let Zack put a bullet through his head._

_Zack might have survived, but he'll never be my old Zack again._

_I'm a horrible person._

_I finally trust Alec and he betrays me like this._

_No, he didn't betray me, he just wanted to comfort me and maybe I needed him to be Ben in that moment._

_Or maybe he just wanted me to open up to him._

_Is it that wrong for someone like me to really understand me?_

_Joshua understands me._

_Yes, but Joshua will never know all of my indiscretions, since I treat him like a child in a way._

_Alec is not without fault and maybe he really is the only one that can understand me._

_But do I want him to?_

_Won't I hurt him in the end, like I tend to do to everyone that comes too close to me._

_Ben._

_Zack._

_Logan._

_Biggs._

_Brin._

_Tinga._

_Dalton._

_Druid._

_Ceecee._

_And all the others._

_You're poison, Renfro said._

_Alec WAS the one that tried to convince me that I wasn't._

_Maybe, he really doesn't mean all that bad._

_But can I let him get too close to me?_

_Can I stand to lose him as well?_

_No, I can't get too attached, I've been hurt too many times._

"Max? Are you alright?" Kylie asked as she crouched before me.

I got to my feet quickly and turned my back to her, wiping away the remnants of my tears quickly.

"Yes, I'm always alright." I said, as I smiled brightly at her.

_Great!_

_Now I even sound as Alec._

She nodded, although she looked unconvinced and got under the shower head next to me.

"You know, Manticore really did a number on us, didn't they?" Kylie said before sighing contently as the hot water streamed down her firm body.

"Filling our heads with lies, making us emotionally retarded. Not to mention the gross things they had us do, like those breeding programs." She went on, not really wanting me to answer her.

"Then there are our heat spells and the whole mating thing. Although it must be kind of hot, right, not being able to keep control?" She smirked at herself as her eyes glazed over.

_Ew, girl, no fantasies with another woman in the shower with you._

_That's disturbing._

"Yeah, still not getting the whole mating thing though." I said, as I vaguely recalled something Gem had said, but couldn't really recall since I was way too stressed out to pay full attention to her.

"We females go in heat to attract our mate. When they smell the pheromones we are emitting, they will do anything to reach us. Since you are an X5, the male X5's will react most violently to your scent. When you have sex with the champion that managed to fight of the competition, you will feel the need to mark each other. Well, if it feels right anyway. If you both bite each other, you will be mated for the rest of your life." Kylie said wistfully.

"That's why Manticore isolated us when we went in heat. If we mated, we could cause unnecessary problems. We can get rather possessive about our mates." Kylie said, something close to disgust in her tone of voice.

"So you think that what I am doing by sedating the males and female in heat, is wrong?" I asked, dying to hear her opinion on that.

"Yes and no." She said vaguely, to which I quirked my eyebrow urging her to go on.

"It's wrong, because you are still keeping possible mates apart, but at the same time we are in a time of war and losing good men would be foolish at the time being." Kylie explained.

"Because there would undoubtedly be casualties among the male soldiers." She elaborated, deep in thought. I nodded thoughtfully as my own mind started to wander.

"I'm in love with a normal human, so I would never mate with an X5." I exclaimed with certainty.

"We are not made for Ordinaries. You must not have been around a lot of X5's when in heat. You would not be able to stop yourself and if you were to have sex with an Ordinary during your heat, you might break him since you lose control much easier. Max, you might think you love him, but you are not meant to be with him." She said, her dark eyes boring into mine, daring me to contradict her.

"Then who is meant for me?" I asked more of myself, but Kylie answered anyway.

"I know, I've seen his reaction to you and he is already getting more insistent, since he can smell your heat coming." She said as she shampooed her hair.

"My heat isn't due for another couple of weeks." I tried to argue.

"No, it's not. The males are getting more edgier around you, but the one that is meant to mate with you will try to force his presence more upon you towards the event. They smell it a couple of days ahead and let me tell you, you are due tomorrow or the day after at the latest." She said as she moved back underneath the stream to let the shampoo wash out of her hair.

"Then who is it?" I asked, feeling oddly excited.

"No, I want this to be a surprise. But from what I've heard of him, there is no doubt he'll get to you. It's said that he was the strongest and best fighter at Manticore." Kylie smiled wickedly as she unconsciouly licked her lips.

"He's hot too." She added as an afterthought.

_The strongest and best fighter among the X5?_

_Well, that rules out Alec._

_I kick his ass on a daily base._

_God! Grrrrr, why do I keep coming back to Alec?_

"You starting to prune there, Max. Maybe, you should get out of the shower and save some water for the others." Kylie said as she dismissed me.

_Dismiss me?_

_I'm the CO for heaven's sake!_

"Oh alright. Catch you later." I said absentmindedly, trying to wrap my head around my upcoming heat and all the things involving mates.

"Goodmorning, Max. Sleep well?" Alec's voice broke through my fogged state of mind.

"Sure." I said, not giving him the light of day and heading over to my office.

"Max? Are you going to help me with training today?" Alec asked from the door at my office.

_God!_

_Why can't he leave me alone for five freaking minutes!_

"Whatever, Alec. Come get me later, I'm really busy now." I said as I ruffled through some papers, without actually seeing them and picked out a paper holding it in front of me, pretending to read it intently.

"Oh I believe you, Max." He laughed as he got closer and took the piece of paper out of my hand.

"You should read it like this. Upside down just makes it harder." He chuckled as he handed it back to me.

I groaned and banged my head on my desk.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked as he rubbed my shoulders.

_What?_

_He's going to give me a massage now?_

_He sure is acting strange lately._

"Why do people keep asking me that?" I growled as I tensed even further, when his fingers brushed my collarbone.

A knock on my office door made Alec quickly move away from me.

The undeniable head came peeping through and I nearly choked on laughter from her 'skunk' look.

"Hey Stripe. Did you need anything?" I asked as I quickly composed myself.

She looked at Alec who got the idea and finally left my office.

"We got the food and stuff, but no tranquilizer darts." She said as she plopped down on the chair across from me and put her feet down on my desk.

"What do you mean, no tranquilizer darts?" I asked, getting slightly nervous. If Kylie was right, I would be going in heat soon along with three others that were due around this time of year.

"Apparently, the company supplying to the zoo had some fire last week, which is why they hadn't been able to deliver any this week. Frank will be hooking us up again next week at the earliest." Stripe said as she leaned back on the back legs of her chair.

"This is bad, real bad." I said, shaking my head.

"Maybe we could put the horny ladies in isolation before the shits hit the fan." Stripe suggested as I glared at her feet on my desk. She caught on quickly and set them down on the ground.

"Nah, that wouldn't help. The men would just bust down the door." I said and she nodded thoughtfully.

"And if they lay low somewhere else?" Stripe suggested.

"Where? Ordinaries everywhere are looking for us and a woman in heat isn't going to be able to lay low." I answered. She got up to her feet and walked to the door.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to sit this one out then. You never know, it might not be that bad after all." She said, before saluting me again.

_Why does she have to ruin every conversation with a damn salute!?_

She closed the door and what do you know, another knock sounded and Alec strode in.

"I showed them some holds, but I need you for the demonstration." He said as he gestured towards the door.

"Bip, bip, bip, Miss." He grinned as he tapped his watch.

"Ass!" I quipped, hitting him on the back of his head.

"Oh you love it. Just admit it." He countered as he smirked at me, that smirk that made me all warm inside, but made me want to bash in his head at the same time.

We walked in silence towards the training room and when I got there the male X5's suddenly all started fidgeting.

_Maybe Kylie was right after all._

_Alec doesn't seem to have such a hard time with it._

I shrugged it off and walked to one side of the mat, while Alec took position at the other side.

"I showed the moves to jog your memories, now we'll start the sparring. Watch me and Max and then afterwards I'll pair you guys off." Alec said and something told me he must have been a good CO back at Manticore. He looked and acted the part without any problems.

There won't be much sparring going on.

_Alec always goes down quickly when he's up against me._

I grinned as I moved down in my fighting crouch.

Alec blurred around me and kicked the back of my bended knee sending me down to the ground.

_What the ..._

I moved my weight to my upper body and used it to swing myself back to my feet.

Before my feet had even touched the ground, he was right in my face.

One hand grabbing me by the shoulder as the other flipped my torso around, making me crash with my back into his chest. His arm snuck out and held me in a choke hold.

_How ..._

I tried to elbow him, but he blocked each one or moved just beyond my reach.

I kicked backwards making him release my neck, but he grabbed on to my leg and landed his foot in my back himself, sending me with my stomach onto the mat.

With his knees in my lower back, he moved on top of me and one arm flew around my neck, keeping me in choke hold again. I didn't dare to move. Movement would assure a spinal break or lead to myself being choked.

_What the hell just happened?_

_How did he get the upperhand?_

_Where did he learn to fight like that all of the sudden?_

_Did he hold back all those times we fought before?_

_Why would he do that?_

I was getting really pissed, so when he got to his feet to adress the others, I kicked out his legs and sent him crashing to the ground.

"You were holding out on me!? Why?" I growled as I stood towering over him.

"Max, can we discuss this later, I'm busy with training right now." He said as he jumped to his feet and started pairing off the others.

I sulkingly stalked off and headed towards the roof, so I could think in peace.

As I passed the X6's that were training, Kylie smiled knowingly in my direction and I scowled at her.

_That girl knows more than she is letting on._

_It gets on my freaking nerves!_

"What's your dealio?" I asked, venom dripping with each word.

"Nothing." She shrugged and turned back to the instructor.

When I finally made it up to the roof, I sighed in relief and let my mind wander off to all the times I had fought Alec before and how easy it had been to defeat him.

_He did have about 10 years more training then me._

_It shouldn't surprise me that he's better in combat._

_But why hold back?_

_It's not because I'm a woman._

_Manticore never made a difference between men and women._

_This is all so confusing._

_And why am I so angry because he can fight me?_

_Shouldn't I be happy?_

_Ofcourse, I thought he hadn't taken me by force the first time I met him, because he had been incapable of overpowering me._

_Obviously, that wasn't the reason._

_He easily could have obeyed orders and forced himself upon me._

_Maybe Alec was a gentleman by nature and didn't want to rape or beat a woman._

_Nah, this is Alec we're talking about._

_Alec, who had ten women on each finger when we were living outside of TC._

_Alec, who didn't do relationships and used a woman only to throw her away like a used napkin._

_But how well did I really know him?_

_And who was the real Alec?_

_The one from Crash and Seattle, or the one from TC?_

I looked over at the gates, where yet another cross was being burned and sighed.

_Will my life ever make sense?_

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**This was a long chapter.**

**I hope you liked it though.**

**Keep the reviews coming, please.**

**Next up : Max is in heat.**

**Untill then.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	8. Chapter 8 : Heat

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

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**Heat : Alec's point of view**

I felt that same pull again, the pull that had led me to her room last night. The one that made me ask her to spar with me. She had barely walked out of the training room, when I felt the need to follow her.

"Zane, you know what to look for right?" I called out to Zane, who had just finished sparring with Lyla, a bulky redhead. He nodded at me and turned towards the others.

"Report tonight, I have an urgent matter to adress." I said, before running through the door.

I wanted to head towards the office, but something told me I needed to go up the stairs that led to the roof.

I stood in the doorway undetected as I watched Max, who was hugging her knees and looked utterly defeated.

After watching her for about an hour, I couldn't take it anymore and finally moved to sit beside her.

"I'm sorry." I said as I nudged her. She looked confused for a moment, before a quick flash of pain crossed her face and then settled into indifference.

"I just never wanted to really hurt you, ya know. So I held back." I said as I stared at the gates where the Haters were calming down and were sitting in their vans hiding from the dreary Seattle weather.

"Why? Obviously, you didn't have to many problems fighting women at Manticore, so why hold back with me?" She asked as she cocked her head to the side.

"I don't know really. I guess it's because you were the first person to befriend me, or the first person to see me as an individual and not some number. When Manticore burned down, all I had ever known turned out to be a lie. So I followed you and went to work at Jam Pony, since you were the only one who knew anything about real life. You might have hated me, but I held on to you in a way, because you were all I had. You know?" I tried to explain myself. At first it had been exactly that, but now I wondered if maybe I had been in love with her for much longer than I realized myself. I thought I had started to fall after that night she told me about Ben, but maybe I had been all along.

"I'm sorry for not being a better friend before. I sort of treated you like shit at first." Max said softly as she looked regretful up at me.

"Nah, you explained that to me. The whole Ben's twin thing had you on guard. I get that." I said as I smiled softly at her.

She smiled back at me, before softly kissing my cheek and walking inside.

I sat in a daze as my hand unconsciously touched the cheek that had warmed from that single, innocent kiss.

We didn't talk for the rest of the day or the day after, although I kept trying to find an excuse to talk to her. I stuck to her like glue, but she didn't acknowledge my presence.

I knew she wasn't mad, but just taking time to get accustomed to this new aspect in our relatioship. She never really had a transgenic she confided in and felt like she could trust completely, so she was working out that puzzle in her head, while I acted as her shadow.

Another day had started once again and upon waking I jumped out of bed and headed towards Max's room. She was sweating and breathing hard. My first thought was that she was getting sick, but when I walked into her room she suddenly moaned and I noticed her hand massaging her breast. I instantly backtracked and got the hell out of there, not wanting her to kick my ass when she caught me leering at her like a damn peeping Tom.

As I got underneath one very, very cold shower, it suddenly hit me.

The scent that had me all worked up, the air that was undeniable filled with pheromones.

_Mine!_

I headed back towards her bedroom, but something steered me in the other direction.

She had waken up already and was on the move.

I started running as I followed the pheromones still lingering in the air.

I grinned as I ran straight past several X5's that seemed to be having a fight to the death.

Stripe walked up to me, but in my current state of mind I couldn't really distinguish male from female, so as soon as she got in reaching distance I flung out my arm, knocking her back. As I got closer to the office, I noticed three X5's already banging on her office door.

_Mine!_

I started to run even faster untill I got right behind them.

The first one to look at me had dark hair, that was all that I could really notice.

We circled eachother for a while, untill I saw from the corner of my eye that another one was approaching me. I quickly blurred to stand behind the second attacker and snapped his neck without any effort. As his body fell down to the floor with a thud, the darkhaired X5 finally made a move and used my temporarily distraction to kick out my legs from under me.

He put his foot on my throat, intend to keep me down or to stomp on my Adam's apple which undoubtedly results in death. I grabbed a hold of his foot and twisted, breaking his ankle. As he jumped back a little on one leg, I smirked and left him hanging. The third that hadn't made a move so far, somehow had managed to open the door and the amount of pheromones in the air took away the last of my sanity. I growled loudly, as I grabbed the guy by the back of his head and slammed his head through the wall. As he laid unconscious I took notice of my surroundings.

_Threat number 1 : Broken ankle_

_Threat number 2 : Deceased_

_Threat number 3 : Unconscious_

I walked into the room feeling victorious and slammed the door shut behind me.

I locked the door and sniffed the air, growling low as I watched Max crawling towards me.

"Mine!" I growled out as she jumped me, making me crash against the wall behind me.

Max grinded herself forcefully against me and I groaned loudly with each contact her center made with my hardened member.

Her nails dug into my skin as she ripped my shirt of and accidentaly broke my skin as well, leaving nasty cuts on my chest.

She purred after licking a trail from my chest to my neck and tasting the blood in her mouth.

"My champion." She purred into my ear and that's when I finally snapped.

I grabbed her ass roughly and lifted her higher on my waist, walking over to her desk and clearing it with my arm before lowering her on to it.

I couldn't speak as I was driven solely by animal instinct.

When in heat foreplay was not a good idea and the animal inside me knew exactly how to treat a woman in heat. I ripped her pants clear off, along with her top. I growled again as I noticed she hadn't put on panties in her hurry this morning and plunged into her heat in one swift motion.

She screamed out her pleasure and her back arched off of the desk. She grabbed a hold of me by wrapping her arms around my torso and clawing at my back.

The pain and pleasure I was feeling was overwhelming and I pounded into her even harder.

Nothing had ever felt this way and although my mind was clouded with lust and need, at least that much was clear as day.

I could quickly feel her tightening around me and as she cried out with her orgasm I flipped her over onto her stomach rapidly. I pounded into her warm, tight center from behind and then I felt this undescriable urge to bite her. As I grew inside of her and pulsed with the approaching orgasm, I bent over her body and brought her up with me. With her back pressed against my chest, I roared out in ecstacy and then silenced it by piercing her soft, perfect olive skin with my teeth. Max screamed and once I had broken away from her, she turned around. She wrapped her arms around my neck and legs around my waist, resuming our original position against the wall and as I slid back into her, she licked the shell of my ear.

She was still quivering from her second orgasm and the slight increase in pressure had her coming again. Her tight walls clenched around me as I thrust deeply inside of me and then she bit my shoulder. I roared with my second release and then slumped down to the floor, not daring to break the connection between us as she moved down with me and I was still buried deep inside of her.

I kissed her bitemark reverently as she did the same to mine and as she fell asleep on top of me, I still didn't move. I remained seated like that for six hours and as Max woke up, the entire process was repeated. We must have been locked up in that office for two days straight, when all of the sudden Max jumped off of me.

"Shit!" She swore as she looked down at herself and then at me.

_Her heat must be over._

_Dammit!_

_She is so going to kick my ass._

"You! You...YOU!" With every 'you' her face turned redder and redder and I knew she was getting ready to explode.

"Yeeeeeeees?" I drawled out the word, urging her on.

_Might as well get it over with._

"You took advantage of me!" She shrieked and I just looked dumbfounded at her.

"I...What?" Spending all this time with her even had me feeling like a dumbass after a while.

"You knew I was in heat and still you...-" I couldn't hear anymore and cut her off.

_Impolite, I know, but who cares._

"Are you kidding me, Max? Are you seriously accusing me of taking advantage of you? Don't you remember a single fucking thing of the last couple of days?" I was getting seriously pissed at her and had to count to ten in my head.

"If I hadn't, someone else would have. Sorry, but you're not in damn Disneyworld anymore, little girl. You're surrounded by transgenetics and I think I had to get through three X5's just to get to you, not to mention the fights I saw on my way over to you. Be happy it was me and not some creepy dude like Skull." I said as I struggled to keep my voice even.

Her face contorted in disgust when I mentioned Skull and I nearly busted out laughing thinking about the X5 that had shaved off his head and tattooed lines all over his face to resemble a skull.

_That guy has invented the word Creep._

Max pursed her lips as she pulled up her ripped pants and tried to make a knot of her top to hide her chest from hungry eyes.

"Just stay away from me, Alec. At least for a little while." She said in barely a whisper, her eyes tearing up as she hung her head and did the walk of shame towards her room.

I swallowed as I watched her round the corner and a single tear ran down her cheek.

_What did I do?_

_Why couldn't I control myself?_

_Dammit!!_

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**Max, what the hell are you doing?**

**She just had hot monkey sex with Alec Sexgod McDowell and she wants him to stay away. **

**Must have been dropped on her head one too many times as a baby.**

**Well, what did you guys think?**

**Was the short lemon ok?  
**

**Let me know.**

**Reviews, please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	9. Chapter 9 : Logan

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thx Recicup for another review :)**

**I obeyed this time, because here I am, back at my computer :)**

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**Logan : Max's point of view**

I cried silently as I sat on my bed, trying to make sense of what had happened the past couple of days. I had woken up after one hell of a hot dream about me, Logan and strangely enough Alec. I knew I was in heat, because of that dream. I always seemed to dream much intenser when in heat and decided to take a shower to cool off.

I hadn't made it there though, because all around me X5's started to fight eachother.

"Get into your office, I'll try to hold off as many as I can!" Stripe yelled as she knocked out Skull with her elbow.

I had barely made it inside when the banging started and my need to get physical with someone was getting worse.

I wanted to open that door and let them in, to have their way with me, but somehow I managed to keep my wits about and stayed hidden behind the desk.

Things got blurry after that. I remembered the sounds of fighting and how it seemed to turn me on even more, I remembered some guy peeking in, before he was ripped away. And then there was Alec.

_He gave it to me good, real good, but this was Alec for God's sake._

_Oh my God! I bit him!_

My hand instantly went to my shoulder and neck and then I felt it.

_Shit! He bit me as well!_

_What did Kylie say?_

_Remember, Max!_

_Try to remember!_

_"When you have sex with the champion that managed to fight of the competition, you will feel the need to mark each other. Well, if it feels right anyway. If you both bite each other, you will be mated for the rest of your life"_

_Does this mean I'm married?_

_To Alec!?_

_Can my life suck any harder?!_

_"The one that is meant to mate with you will try to force his presence more upon you towards the event."_

_I should have known!_

_He was constantly following me around like a lost puppy._

_Why didn't I think of this before?_

_Maybe, I could have made sure he was preoccupied during my time in heat._

_But would he have listened?_

_And why am I bothering with the 'What if's', it's too late now._

_I've mated._

_Maybe, I can ignore it._

_It could pass._

_Right?_

_What could take my mind off Alec?_

_Logan._

_But he still hasn't contacted you after Alec ran over there._

_Do you really want to come off like the pathetic girl that can't live without her lover?_

_I guess I do._

I got up and took a quick shower, sighing in relief when I noticed Alec must be respecting my wish by staying away from me.

I got dressed quickly and looked outside.

_A dark, cloudy night, not even a star in sight._

_Perfect!_

I didn't bother with my Ninja this time as I scaled the fence and ran towards Joshua's house, or by now it should be called 'Logan's' house.

Alec's scent was still clinging to my skin, even though I had scrubbed painfully at my skin and I could even swear I felt his presence as I ran towards Logan's place.

_Stupid mating thing!_

I didn't bother to knock as I went inside and ran straight for the bedroom.

_What the hell!?_

"Max?" Logan's voice, thick with sleep asked as he quickly threw the covers over the woman sleeping next to him.

"You're back." He breathed as he looked at me with adoration.

_Hell no!_

_Not when you are sleeping with 'Mss. Spread 'em wide' over there._

"Erm...No, not really. Just wanted to see how you were doing." I said, my Manticore mask already firm in place.

_No doubt he never called._

_He was too busy banging the S1W – skank._

"I'm miserable, Max. I missed you so much." He said in a broken voice as he stared up at me.

"Oh I can see that." I said as I watched the blond stir.

"It's not what it seems. I was just sad and Asha comforted me." He tried to explain, but I just looked at him, my face an emotionless mask.

"Yeah, I get it. What better comfort than having sex with the woman that has pined after you for years?" I asked sarcastically, reminding myself not to insult Asha too much, since there are two people to have made this a party.

"Besides, this is for the best. We can't touch or you'd die. I live in hiding at TC, while you can wine and dine the blonde over here. Easy decision to make." I said flippantly as I moved to turn.

"No, Max, I love you." He said and the sound of a muffled sob distracted me from his face.

I was careful only to make contact with his skin through my gloved hand as I slapped him.

"How dare you! You sleep with her and then tell me you love me! Don't you have any feeling?" I growled as I locked eyes with Asha and smiled sympathetically.

"I-I...Alec told me not to contact you ever again. He threatened me Max." He tried again.

I was taking deep breaths trying to keep calm and not explode.

_How dare he use Alec as an excuse._

_When did he ever listen to Alec before?_

_We have faced so many dangers, I could handle Alec._

_No, he just didn't want to contact me._

_He sleeps with Asha, while I'm beating myself up._

_And then to pin it all on Alec..._

_Grrrrrr._

I might be growling inwardly, but the roar that sounded from the living room surely wasn't mine. We all turned in surprise to see a vivid Alec stalking towards the bedroom.

I winced as I noticed the big bitemark peeking out from underneath his shirt.

I wasn't sure if mine was on display, but if it was then it wouldn't be too long for this thing to escalate even further.

Logan, who had put on rubber gloves took my hand in support and Alec's face became absolute murderous.

"Don't touch her!" He spat between gritted teeth.

I pulled my hand away from Logan's grip quickly and moved towards Alec.

"Calm down." I said in a soft tone of voice, but he was still growling as he glared at Logan.

"Alec...Alec!...Calm down....Alec!" It took forever before I could tear his eyes away from Logan, but as soon as our eyes met, his body visibly relaxed and his growl died down.

"This is just getting too weird." I muttered as I shook my head and moved a little back from Alec, who took a step towards me each time I moved away from him.

To outsiders it might have looked as if we were doing some silly kind of dance.

"What are you doing here, Alec?" I asked, when I noticed he was calm enough.

"I-I don't know. I just followed you. I don't know why though." He said in utter confusion as he looked into my eyes, questioning what this could possible mean.

"We mated." I said low enough for Logan and Asha not to hear.

Alec's brow furrowed a little deeper and then realization hit him hard.

"That would explain a lot." He said dryly, before glaring one last time at Logan and picking me up over his shoulder.

"What? Are you guys pretending to be together again?" Logan snorted from behind us.

"No pretending." Alec said between gritted teeth as he flipped Logan off.

He literally carried me home, Caveman – Style.

I would have kicked his ass, if my body wasn't tingling all over from the close approximity.

_This is bad, real bad!_

_I'll have to figure out a way to undo our claims tomorrow, because today my body is begging for entirely different things._

Alec smelling my arousal smacked my butt and started to run, eager to get home and do something about his now very prominent erection.

We made it back in barely fifteen minutes and as soon as we had passed all the others to my private quarters, he threw me down onto the bed and all thoughts disappeared from our minds as we came together in raw passion and lust.

All night long.

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**So what did you think?**

**Let me know.**

**There will be some serious drama heading our way.**

**Reviews please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	10. Chapter 10 : Eye of the tiger

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel, otherwise the show would still be running.**

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**Eye of the tiger : Alec's point of view**

I woke up alone and sighed miserably as I rolled over to the cold spot where Max should be.

I headed towards Max's office to give her a piece of my mind, when I noticed the chaos going on around me.

"You're the SIC, right?" A kid that had arrived her a couple of days ago asked. He had jet black hair and deep brown eyes and I vaguely remembered his name being Liam.

I nodded at him with furrowed brow. They rarely came up to me with questions, chosing to go directly over my head to our fearless leader, Max.

"I came to report that so far three X5's, one X6 and two X7's are missing and our CO is one of the X5's missing." He stated dryly as he watched my face change from indifference to shock and finally rage when my brain caught up with the fact that someone out there had taken Max away from me.

"Mobilize the troops! Have them ready in 50. Did someone go over emergency protocol with you?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest as I tried to stop the trembling of my body.

I wasn't trembling with fear, it was pure rage and whoever would be at the end receiving my wrath would be regretting the day he was born.

"Yes, Sir. We have all been informed on the day of our arrival and have trained each day for this exact purpose." I was baffled Max had given extra training without my knowledge, but nodded gratefully and turned on my heel. I ran down to the control room where Dix and Luke were already monitoring our security tapes.

"There!" I yelled out as we watched a team of 12 armored men crawling out of the sewers.

"Switch camera! I need to know exactly how this happened." I ordered and they both started to furiously type on their keyboards.

The camera's kept switching, following their every step untill finally they arrived at the garage. We watched horrified how they had snuck up on their victims one by one, injected them with something that seemed to paralyze them and then handed them off to someone in the back. The group grew smaller and smaller as one of them would always leave with a captured transgenic. Regrettably, Max was the first to go, so she never stood a chance.

During the last fight, which happened to be one of our latest X6's to arrive, we watched as Kylie ripped the fabric from one of the soldiers arms. Luke zoomed in on the image after seeing something vague on his arm and then we all saw it. That same symbol Max had on her hand from being bitten by that disease-infected snake.

"Familiars." The three of us said at the same time.

Stripe came running in and I instantly turned towards her.

"We have a situation, Sir!" She barked and I rolled my eyes at her formal tone of voice.

"What situation, Stripe?" I asked as I moved instinctively towards the window.

"We are surrounded, Sir. Familiars and Haters are lined up all along the fence. We won't be able to set up a rescue party, if we can't create a clear path." Stripe said, giving me a lot of information pure logic could have told me.

I nodded at her and motioned at all of them to follow me.

"Liam!" I barked as I stood in front of Max's office.

He came running, well more like blurring and saluted me.

"How far along are you with mobilizing our men?" A cough sounded behind me from Stripe and I quickly added "And women." To which she nodded gratefully.

_Damn feminists everywhere!_

"We're all ready to go, Sir." Liam barked and I smirked.

"Alright, there is a slight chance of plans. Unit 4 will stay behind, untill we have gained the upperhand, then they will form the rescue party and go to wherever Dix tells them to go. Dix, you will be hacking into all companies that have security camera's placed out on the streets, maybe even the Police to check out what the Hovers have caught on film. You will find out the location they are keeping our soldiers and tell Unit 4. Got that?" Dix nodded, but Liam didn't move.

"What?!" I was losing my patience fast and this kid was seriously testing me.

"Sir, aren't you a part of Unit 4?" He asked and I nodded, wondering where the hell he was going with this.

"You shouldn't be going out there." He said as he bore his eyes into mine.

"Max is out there and I am going to get her back!" I growled.

"Sir, with all due respect. You are our SIC. We are currently relying on you in the absence of our CO. If we lost you as well, this place would fall apart in no time." Liam said, pointing out the obvious. Ofcourse, I hadn't even considered that as I had been solely focused on saving Max.

"Alright, same orders, only Unit 2 will do the rescuing." I said in a defeated tone.

"Sir, yes, Sir." Liam barked before heading over to the units to inform them of our game plan.

"I'm in your unit, Sir." Stripe said as she turned to me and I rolled my eyes at her.

_What is it with people and stating the obvious._

_Do they really think I'm that dumb?_

_Is it because I'm blond?_

_Well, dirty blond actually, but still blond._

"Your point?" I asked, sensing she wasn't going to say anything else.

"Well, I love me a good fight, Sir, but I need the right kind of music to get me in the mood." She said and I looked at her in confusion.

"I always bring out my boombox when I'm going to fight, so do you mind if I played some music while kicking ass?" I couldn't help it, the whole thing was just so ridiculous, I bust out laughing.

"Whatever, Skunk." I gasped between fits of laughter.

"Hey! My name is Stripe! ... Sir." She yelled out in exasperation, only to add a respectful 'Sir' at the end, making me crack up once again.

"I found it! They are at an old warehouse at the corner of Fifth and Maple." Dix called out as he came walking up to me.

"What are you telling me for? Go inform Unit 2!" I said as I finished lacing up my boots.

I moved towards the windows and started counting. I counted about 70 Familiars, which were easy to recognize in their armored get up and 80 Haters, which looked a lot like hillbillies gone bad. They were only missing their forkpitches.

We had 12 Units of 12 that were going to battle here today and one Unit of 12 to extract our kidnapped soldiers.

_144 transgenics against 150 mixed opponents should be a piece of cake._

_Oh wait!_

_We're missing 6 of our men._

_Well, 138 against 150 were still good odds._

I went to join my unit and we waited patiently as the garagedoors started to lift. I watched Stripe for a moment, whose finger was hovering over the play button as she smiled widely at the idea of an upcoming fight.

Dix must have pressed the control button from the inside for the gates, since they flew open just as we walked to stand a feet in front of HQ.

The Haters all started filing in through the gates, while the Familiars stood back.

_That's right._

_Here Kitty Kitty._

_A little bit further._

I just loved how these fools walked in on our turf and expected to form any kind of threat to us.

As they reached the middle ground between the buildings and the gates, we started to strode forward. As we took the first step the unmistakable intro of 'Eye of the Tiger' started to play.

I had to bite my lip not to laugh at her choice of song.

Stripe put down her boombox well out of reach from where the fight would take place, obviously concerned of hurting the piece of old technology. Although it made noise enough to be heard well outside of the fence.

Stripe and I put our backs together as we fought of our first attackers.

_**Risin' up back on the street**_  
_**Did my time, took my chances**_  
_**Went the distance now I'm back on my feet**_  
_**Just a man and his will to survive**_  
_**So many times, it happens too fast**_  
_**You trade your passion for glory**_  
_**Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past**_  
_**You must fight just to keep them alive**_

The first verse had barely ended as all of the Haters were already down.

_80 Ordinaries against 138 Transgenics will do that._

I glared over at the 70 Familiars standing just outside our gates.

"Form pairs and chose a target." I barked and Stripe instantly moved to my side.

The Familiars were not going to step onto our turf, so we split up into four groups and each group took a gate as we casually strolled through it as I sang along with the chorus.

_**It's the Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**It's the thrill of the fight**_  
_**Rising up to the challenge of our rival**_  
_**And the last known survivor**_  
_**Stalks his prey in the night**_  
_**And he's watching us all**_  
_**With the Eye of the Tiger**_

We came face to face with some blonde bitch that seemed to have eaten one too many taco's, since her ass was almost as wide as the front of our vans.

We started circling each other, Stripe putting more distance between her and me with each move, so that she could move to stand behind Fat-Ass.

_**Face to face, out in the heat**_  
_**Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry**_  
_**They stack the odds till' we take to the street**_  
_**For we kill with the skill to survive**_

Stripe jumped her back and used her index and middle finger to momentarily blind our opponent. The woman screeched and started swiping at Stripe to get her off her back and I nodded at Stripe. Stripe jumped off, just as I landed a kick to her head.

_**It's the Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**It's the thrill of the fight**_  
_**Rising up to the challenge of our rival**_  
_**And the last known survivor**_  
_**Stalks his prey in the night**_  
_**And he's watching us all**_  
_**With the Eye of the Tiger**_

She looked disoriented, but even confused and with no sight, she managed to point her gun straight at me. I blurred to the side, but her gun stayed pointing at me as if she heard my movements.

_**Risin' up straight to the top**_  
_**Had the guts, got the glory**_  
_**Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop**_  
_**Just a man and his will to survive**_

Stripe kicked her in the back and she turned around fast, pointing straight at Stripe.

I ran up behind her and put her head in a headlock and then she pulled the trigger.

She missed and then two more gunshots sounded and the bitch went down. I looked behind me to see Mole puffing at his cigar as he put his gun back against his shoulder.

_**It's the Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**It's the thrill of the fight**_  
_**Rising up to the challenge of our rival**_  
_**And the last known survivor**_  
_**Stalks his prey in the night**_  
_**And he's watching us all**_  
_**With the Eye of the Tiger**_

I looked around me to see that all Familiars had been taken down and Unit 2 was on their way.

"The eye of the tiger!" We all sang as we waved them off and held up our thumbs to wish them luck.

_**The Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**The Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**The Eye of the Tiger**_  
_**The Eye of the Tiger**_

"Unit 5 and 7, you are to follow them and move in, if they not made it out after a half an hour. Unit 11 clean up this mess" I said as I motioned to the halfconscious Haters on the ground, before stalking back towards HQ. Dix closed the gates behind us as the last note rang out of our new official Battle Song.

As the garage doors closed behind us, Stripe's boom box started to play another song and we all sang along merrily. Well everyone except me, since my mind was solely on Max and our rescue team.

_**I've paid my dues**_  
_**Time after time**_  
_**I've done my sentence**_  
_**But committed no crime**_  
_**And bad mistakes**_  
_**I've made a few**_  
_**I've had my share of sand kicked in my face**_  
_**But I've come through**_

_**We are the champions, my friends**_  
_**And we'll keep on fighting, till the end**_  
_**We are the champions**_  
_**We are the champions**_  
_**No time for losers**_  
_**'Cause we are the champions, of the world**_

_**I've taken my bows**_  
_**And my curtain calls**_  
_**You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it**_  
_**I thank you all**_

_**But it's been no bed of roses**_  
_**No pleasure cruise**_  
_**I consider it a challenge before the whole human race**_  
_**And I ain't gonna lose**_

_**We are the champions, my friends**_  
_**And we'll keep on fighting, till the end**_  
_**We are the champions**_  
_**We are the champions**_  
_**No time for losers**_  
_**'Cause we are the champions, of the world**_

_**We are the champions, my friends  
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end  
We are the champions  
We are the champions  
No time for losers  
'Cause we are the champions**_

As I joined Dix in the control room, I saw he was watching the news, where we were kicking some serious ass.

"_The transgenics on the rise? Or was this a full out attack on their community?_

_We have images that show that several have walked through their gates. But were they provoked to do so? Or where they acting on their own accord? Will their actions bring the transgenic Wrath upon Seattle next? Stay tuned for more footage on the horrid circumstances that have taken place at Terminal City not even ten minutes ago."_

"Oh great, they come a knockin' and we can't even kick some ass defending ourselves or are seen as a threat to the Seattle population." Mole growled as he came up behind me.

"Should we have handled this differently?" I asked as I watched the lizard guy puff his cigar.

"Nah, they would have come anyway." He said, turning away from me as he started to clean his shotgun, effectively ending our conversation.

_I just pray they get Max out soon._

_

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**This was a slightly longer chapter.**

**I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Review please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	11. Chapter 11 : White Room

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thanks for the reviews :)**

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**White Room : Max's point of view**

I had been washing my Ninja down in the garage, when something pricked me.

Whatever it was they injected into my system, it was strong and worked fast.

I felt my muscles locking up almost instantly and although I tried to fight off the drug, it was no use. With eyes wide open I was passed to a man in uniform and he took me into the sewers. I wanted to kick myself for not adding more security to the sewer entrances that were spread across Terminal City.

We would need to add some silent alarms as soon as I got back.

He held me a little too close for comfort as he carried me out of the underground sewers and placed me into a van. They brought in more transgenics and I wanted to scream, kick, punch.

Still I couldn't move. They drove us off to an abandoned warehouse, where the men started to carry out the X's, all but me.

Three men in uniform were watching me closely, no doubt looking for signs that my paralysis was wearing off and when my pinky moved, they injected me with more of that nasty stuff.

The van was moving again, I could see it from the men's movements as they braced themselves for each turn or bump.

The ride didn't take that much longer and soon the same man as before was carrying me into a house. The house was grey and looked as if it could fall in at any given time.

Anger shone from my eyes as the man pinched my ass and he chuckled at the fire he could clearly see in my eyes.

"What are you going to do, 452?" He taunted me as he walked us in through the back door.

The inside was nothing like I would have expected. The house was spotless and the burgundy interiour looked rich and posh. He walked me into a room, unlike any other. The walls were clean white and there was nothing to see except for one chair. A chair like the ones Manticore used for their brainwashing and torture. He strapped me onto the chair and then left the room.

I must have laid there for hours, I could move but the straps kept me unable to escape. I could feel the aching aftermath from the paralyzing drug in my muscles and wondered where the hell I was as I tried to figure out a way to escape.

A tall, blonde woman dressed in a business suit entered my room and smiled happily at me.

"Oh 452, so glad to see you are back to your old self." She said pleasantly as she put her briefcase on the chair she carried in with her.

"My name is Max and who the hell are you!" I growled as I struggled against my bounds.

"I'm Ariel Black and I'll take excellent care of you." She said, as she opened the brief case and pulled out some vials and needles.

She pulled my blood as I gave her my best death glare.

"Don't be so hostile, 452. Otherwise I'll have to call in my new partner and we all know you don't want to deal with him." She snickered as she put the filled vials back into the suit case and disposed of the needles.

"Oh and who might that be?" I asked, venom dripping from my every word.

"You know him so well, he'll be sad to hear you forgot all about him." She purred, before giving her a long, cold look.

"Ames White, ofcourse." She said as she quirked an eyebrow.

"Black and White, aren't you people original." I snorted.

"You aren't getting to me with your sarcasm, 452." She said as she tried to level me with her eyes.

_Think again, bitch._

"What do you need my blood for anyway?" I asked as I sugercoated my voice with all the sweetness I could muster.

"Curiosity killed the cat, 452." She said, before smiling wickedly and heading out of the room.

I could still hear her just outside of my door and apparently White was there as well.

They must have expected me to be too weak to use my enhanced hearing, but I caught every word of their conversation.

"Why can't I just put a bullet through her head?" White growled.

"If Carl's plan works, we won't have to worry about any of the transgenics ever again. They are using up too much of our time and money. We need to focus on the Coming." Black answered with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"We have 5 other transgenics in our hold, we should take out 452 now. She's our biggest threat." White barked to Black.

"She's the leader of the others. If we infect her, she'll be our biggest asset. The others might never get close enough to all of them." Black answered calmly.

"Besides the formula isn't completed yet, so let me pass." She growled then at White.

"I don't like this, Ariel. 452 is supposed to be the 'One'. What if your little formula has no effect on her?" White asked, clearly not too confident in his partner's abilities.

"It'll work. Now, let me through so we can finish this once and for all." Black growled and then the sound of someone being slammed against the wall.

"Fine, but if it doesn't work, don't come crying to me, Black!" White yelled as the sound of Black's heels told me she was walking away from him.

I laid there for another two days, when Black finally entered my white little room again.

"Ah and the bitch returns." I said as I turned my face towards the wall.

"No need to get snippy with me, 452." Black said as she took my vitals.

She took a vial from her suitcase and filled her syringe, before injecting me with whatever she cooked up.

"What are you giving me?" I asked as I looked up at her for the first time.

"Just something to make you sleep better, 452." She said as she tried to hide her smile.

_Sure devil woman._

_And if I don't believe that, you'll just make up something else._

"Ha, I never sleep well. Shark DNA and all." I tried to joke, but she just kept her focus on the syringe.

She left the room without another word.

An hour later, I could feel myself starting to weaken.

_What the fuck was in that syringe?_

The same man as the first day came into my room and started stripping me off my clothes.

"What are you doing?" I growled out as he unbuttoned my pants.

"It's time for a bath, 452. No offense, but you smell." He said with a sick smile that told me he was getting way too much pleasure from that fact.

As he took of the straps, I jumped to my feet and kicked him in the chest.

_Ooh Manticore flashback._

_But at least Alec managed to brace himself against the door._

The man went flying and hit the wall hard. As he slid down to the floor I grabbed my clothes, pulled them on and made a run for it.

To my surprise I didn't see another one of those jerks as I ran outside.

I had barely made it to the corner of the street as I felt a hot flash of pain through my arm from where she shot that stuff up my system.

I blinked as I looked around in confusion, not recognizing the area I was in.

Three days I wandered down the streets, surrounded by homeless people and sick bastards coughing in my face.

Finally I spotted the fence leading into sector 8. I scaled the fence unseen and headed home to TC.

It took me an entire day to reach it, since I had developed a bad cough and was burning up with a fever.

_My kind doesn't get sick._

_What's going on?_

I didn't have the strenght to climb the fence anymore and hid out behind the dumpster, trying to stay out of sight from the haters as I curled up into a ball.

Then _he_ was there.

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**So what did you guys think?**

**Review please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley  
**


	12. Chapter 12 : Deja vu

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thx for your reviews xxx**

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**Deja vu : Alec's point of view**

As Dix followed the news, Luke was watching our men that had gone to retrieve the kidnapped transgenics. I stood behind him as I followed closely what was happening on the screen. Our two back up teams had just snuck inside the building and we waited with baited breath to see if they would be able to overpower the Familiars hidden inside.

It didn't take too long as I saw two of our guys carry out an unconscious X5.

Transgenic after transgenic was carried out and put inside the van, which would bring them back to safety. My heart pounded in my chest as I kept searching for the darkhaired, olive skinned beauty to be carried out, but she never was. The units piled back into their vans and the driver of the first van knocked on the roof of the van, before pointing forward, a sign that told us they were moving out and their mission was completed.

There was a pounding inside my head as I grabbed my cellphone and dialed the speed dial that would bring me in contact with the driver of that first van.

Skull answered on the first ring and I didn't give him the chance to utter a proper greeting as I chewed his ass out. He kept on saying that there was nobody else inside that building instead of death Familiars. As I ordered him to turn around and head back, the building exploded in front of our eyes and Luke turned around with big frightful eyes.

"Who ordered the bomb?" I growled into the phone and Skull simply said that they had to get rid of the human looking bodies to avoid any more allegations against their kind.

Ofcourse I understood this, but my heart was screaming that they had just killed their own CO. My mate, the love of my life was gone, because of those screw ups.

I sunk to my knees as I crushed the phone in my hand and bit my lip to stop the tears from coming.

_Max! _

_Oh Maxie, I'm so sorry._

_I should have been there._

_I should have saved you._

I gave Mole temporary control over TC once I managed to get off the floor, which was by dawn the next day and then I locked myself in my room.

Images of Max kept flashing before my eye and pain consumed me as I sat curled into myself in the corner on the cold concrete floor.

_I walked confidently down the halls, smirking at the guards as I passed them. I had been wondering what the O9'er would look like, but hadn't bothered to ask when Renfro ordered me to become her breeding partner._

_"Hey Paul." I greeted the guard standing at 452's door and he winked, before opening the cell door._

_My breath caught in my throat as I looked up at the exotic beauty before me._

_Dark silk hair, plump full lips that begged to be kissed, deep brown eyes that you could get lost in, perfect sized breasts that I was just dying to suckle on, a slim waist,.... She was perfect._

-

_"I'm sorry, Max." I said as I pressed my lips to her hair, quickly sniffing the delicious coconut scented shampoo._

_A few tears ran down her face after telling me about the brother she had lost, the brother I had never known and she had never looked more beautiful._

_I wanted to claim those pouty lips, my heart aching for her and dying to give her comfort in the best way I knew. Her big brown doe eyes looked up at me and I felt myself getting dizzy from the intense emotion I saw hidden within._

_Oh God! Am I falling for Max?_

-

_Her body was pressed against mine as I tasted her mouth for the first time, moaning in ecstacy at the unbelievable taste of her. She tasted of chocolate, mint and something sweet I couldn't name. The feel of her warm body flush against mine was making me incoherent and then she was gone._

-

_She crawled towards me, a little bit of sweat shining on her forehead as she looked up at me seductively. Her nipples were hard and visible through the thin fabric, her long legs moving with catlike grace as she leapt and jumped me._

_Her natural scent mixing with the pheromones and coconut body wash and shampoo driving me crazy as she grinded herself against me._

_-_

_Max lying in my arms, her body spent, her hair wet from the sweat inducing activities we just concluded, her naked chest rising and falling with each breath, her warmth against my naked skin, the peace I felt after becoming one for the first couple of times._

_-_

_Max's eyes as she looked fearfully at me, frantically trying to calm me down from my jealous rage after Logan touched her in my presence._

_The way her eyes had drooped with desire as we started our dance in Logan's house._

_The shape of her mouth as she cried out in ecstacy, the widening of her eyes as her orgasm took over her shaking body, the flush of her skin as our passion consumed her._

_The beauty that was all Max._

_-  
_

"Alec, snap out of it!" Mole said, the horrible scent of his cigar almost made me retch as he snapped his fingers in front of me and puffed out another ring of bad smelling smoke.

I blinked my eyes as I looked up at my lizard friend and clutched my head as the pounding in my head increased. My hand delved into the pocket of my jeans and I fished out the bottle of Tryptophan, quickly popping 4 pills before looking up at the transhuman.

"You've been sitting here for 5 days, you need to eat, man." Mole said as he tossed me a bag of M & M's.

_Oh and this is food?_

_5 days?_

_Where did the time go?_

I tossed aside the bottle of Scotch I had been holding and noticed the 8 others scattered around the room.

_It isn't water, but apparently we can survive on Scotch as well._

I got to my feet, albeit a little wobbly and followed Mole out to the control room.

Mole looked slightly excited as he tried to hide the smile with his constant puffing and I eyed him wearily. Max had only been death for five days and he had the audacity to smile.

The buzzing noise of the computers hurt my head as I looked up through narrowed slits at Luke, who was pointing enthusiastically at something on the screen.

I didn't want to know, all I cared about was the fact that my Max was no more, but Mole forcefully turned me towards the screen.

It was the live feed from one of the security camera's in sector 8 and then my eyes widened as a familiar looking woman walked past the screen. Her usual grace was lacking as she moved slugishly and she was hunched into herself, but I could recognize her anywhere.

"Mole, assemble Unit 5 for retrieval!" I barked after ordering Luke and Dix to keep on her trail. My heart was beating rapidly again, but not in fear and despair this time. Excitement and hope filled my very being as I started to tremble with anticipation.

The sight of my mate after our long separation was making me ache physically and I had to control myself or I would be clawing at whatever stood in my way soon.

"We lost her." Dix sighed as both his as Luke's hands frantically flew across their keyboards. Every possible angle of Sector 8 flew past the screens, but no Max in sight.

I growled loudly and possessively as my fist connected with the table beside me, breaking it in half as my pent up anger had been targeted at the defensive piece of furniture.

"Find her!" I roared as I headed out to where I could see Mole standing as he talked to Unit 5.

"What are you still doing here? Head out to Eight and Vine in Sector 8! It's where she was last spotted! Move out!" I was losing it fast and Mole noticed. We watched the unit as they ran towards their transportation and then he pulled me back by the arm.

Mole looked straight into my eyes, his smoke irritating my eyes as he puffed it out right in front of me. He was obviously searching for something in my eyes as his eyes burned intensely into mine.

"Calm down, Alec. You won't be able to help her if you lose it." He said softly, before releasing me.

"Get a grip, soldier!" He called out, before walking back into the control room.

Although I tried, I couldn't get myself under control as the day flew by.

I snapped at everyone that dared to open his mouth to me and when Unit 5 informed me that her scent had been lost in the market, I grabbed the unit leader by the throat and nearly chocked him to death. Thankfully, Mole had been there in time to stop me and I found myself disgusted at my own behaviour.

Kylie, who had recovered well from her earlier spat with the Familiars, tried to comfort me by telling me my behaviour although irrational was not uncommon when my mate was still in possible danger. She sat by me in the control room and talked into me, soothing my self-loathing untill she finally cried out "She's here!".

One of our own security cameras placed her right outside the fence, behind the dumpster.

I didn't hesitate a second as I was already running outside and scaling the fence.

Max was curled into a tiny ball as she coughed horrendously, covering her mouth with her hand and shivering as if death itself had laid his cold hand upon her.

I stretched out my hand to help her up and her head snapped up.

I gasped as I took in her ashen face, the bloodred eyes and the sweat that dripped down her face.

Her eyes were wide and frightful as she followed my hand moving closer to her.

"Don't touch me!" She rasped "Virus."

I snatched back my hand and looked at her wide eyed, surely I hadn't heard this right.

_Talk about a deja-vu._

_But no way in hell was I going to lose her like Logan did._

_

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**So what did you guys think?**

**Let me know.**

**Reviews please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	13. Chapter 13 : Virus

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

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**Virus : Max's point of view**

The blood being fed to my body did nothing to restore my strenght as I gazed into Alec's beautiful green eyes. From the corner of my eye I could see Dr. Sam Carr walking back into the exam room, all the while shaking his head.

He removed the tube from Alec's arm first, before daring to touch me, still careful not to infect anyone else.

"Doesn't she need more?" Alec asked as he sat up and snacked on some cookies to bring his iron level back up, his brow was furrowed and lines of worry visible on his face.

"No, the virus is attacking her imune system more aggressively with each drop of blood donated." Sam said as he rifled through some papers and sat down defeated, his head in his hands.

"I've never seen anything like this, Max. It's even more advanced than the virus targeted at Logan. It seems to be triggered by the animal DNA inside of you, but somehow manages to distinguish pure animal DNA than the combined stems you have." I nodded weakly as I shivered when a sudden gush of wind blew across my sweaty body.

I coughed violently and held my hand to my mouth, eyes widening with horror as I noticed the blood on my hand.

"Tuberculosis?" I asked as I looked up at Sam, who shook his head in a defeated manner.

"You have pneumonia, Max. You're weakened imune system has left you vulnerable and seeing how you have never dealt with diseases before, they will hit you harder than a regular human being." I shivered violently again as I threw the blanket off me in an attempt to sit upright. The cool air against my fevered body felt agonizing as well as welcomed at the same time. Alec's hand shot out instinctively as he watched me struggle to get into a seated position, but my widened eyes alerted him in time of his intent and he withdrew his hand, ackwardly shoving it into the pocket of his jeans.

I saw the pain this was causing him and the restraint he needed to have not to touch me, since I was battling with the same thing. Since the moment I saw him at the fence, I wanted to touch him, just a finger would be enough as long as I felt him with me, but I couldn't.

The restraint I had been keeping a firm grip on was much more then I ever needed to show with Logan. Maybe it was because Alec and I were mated now, but it was physically causing me pain not to touch him.

"Is she dying?" Alec, always the smartass asked deadly serious as he looked over at Sam, who nodded briefly.

_Dying?_

_Surely there are enough antibiotics to overcome pneumonia._

_Although, if it manages to destroy my imune system, I would never be able to survive._

_The most insignificant bacteria would be able to infect and kill me._

_That Black bitch sure knew what she was doing._

"How long?" Alec's voice broke a little as his body plopped down on the bed next to me, his body getting too heavy for his legs to support.

"A week, maybe two." Sam said in a whisper, before looking sympathetically over at me.

Suddenly, Alec jumped to his feet as he paced around the room.

"Would Manticore scientists know how to fix this?" He asked Sam and me as he muttered too lowly for me to hear to himself. He looked like a caged animal, pacing furiously back and forth, his hand raking through his already disheveled hear, tugging harshly at the ends of the strands he made contact with. His face a cloud of anger, pain and confusion as his eyes regularly flickered over to mine and made his features darken even worse.

"Maybe, their knowledge and techniques are much more advanced than the simple medicine we practice here. Why? What are you thinking?" Sam asked, obviously not liking where this might go and honestly, I was not liking the current train of thought Alec was having either.

"I've picked up on some things. Apparently, Lydecker is rebuilding a new Manticore. He always said Max was special, he wouldn't just let her die. He's a cruel bastard, but he cares about us in his twisted way. I think it's time to go back to Manticore." Alec said, a fire in his eyes I hadn't seen for a long time, but it wasn't passion or delight. It was something dark and sinister. It was the fury of a man who was cornered and his only hope was his only demise at the same time.

"No!" I cried out, wincing at the pain in my throat from rising my voice. "I won't go there, Alec. Sam can put me in quarantine and you guys will be safe. Just let me go, please." I croaked as I looked pleadingly up at him, but he was already shaking his head furiously.

"We're going." He said as he grabbed my arm. I stared disbelieving at his stupidity as I pulled my arm away from him. My first instinct was to grab him and comfort him, but that single touch had infected him for sure and I didn't want to make it worse.

"What did you do?!" I cried out as I looked up at him with pained eyes.

"Leverage." He shrugged and then he grabbed me by my waist and kissed me passionately, purring in my mouth and I couldn't find the strenght in me to resist.

"Now will you go, Maxie? You're always saving my ass anyway, why not both of ours this time?" He asked as his green eyes shone in the hospital light.

"He'll never do it for free. Lydecker never does anything just out of the kindness of his heart. You know that, don't you?" I asked as I caressed his cheek that now had some slight stubble on it that made him even more sexy than before.

"I'll pay any price to save you Maxie." He said as he kissed me tenderly and then picked me up bridal style, muttering a goodbye to Sam and walking us out of the hospital.

Outside, the sun was shining brightly as Alec put me to my feet and boosted a car in broad daylight. He stopped right in front of me and got out of the car, quickly setting me in the car and getting back in the driver's seat. As we drove, he grabbed his cell phone and called Dix.

"Get me Deck's contact information as soon as you can." He said, before snapping his cell closed and stopping at a dingy looking diner.

"We might enjoy our last decent meal for a very long time." He said as he helped me out of the car and into the diner. I surveyed the room quickly and sighed in relief when they all appeared to be Ordinaries on first glance. I didn't need to infect another transgenic now and set loose a plague in this town.

Alec ordered a steak as I settled on a burger and we were served pretty quick, which surprised me. As I chewed on my burger, I saw the slight sheen of sweat appear on Alec's brow and his eyes drooped a little as if he was exhausted.

_Shit, he's already getting sick._

_It's all my fault._

_Why didn't I see what he was trying to do?_

_Why didn't I move in time?_

_Goddammit!_

"Alec?" I spoke his name hesitantly and his green eyes locked with mine as he hmmed at me to go on.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, not knowing whether to wipe the sweat of his brow as I was dying to do or not touch him as much as possible.

"Alright." He said as he shoved a big piece of steak in his mouth.

_Now that's attractive._

"Really? You don't look so good to me." I said as I eyed him skepticaclly.

"Yeah I'm always alright." He said absentmindedly, before his head snapped up at me and looked me straight in the eye, the familiar smirk on his lips.

"Why, Maxie. Are you telling me I'm ugly? Surely, I must have heard it wrong, because no one has ever thought me ugly before." He said, his tone dripping with sarcasm as one of his corners was tugged up into a crooked grin.

"You ass!" I quipped as I hid my own grin and quickly took another bite out of my burger.

"Always with the ass. Still obsessing over that? I though you might have gotten over it now you've got to see it in real life." He smirked and I nearly choked on my food as several males looked over at me with raised brows, obviously overhearing the sexual innuendo in that statement.

"You do have a fine ass." I said as I smiled softly and then composed my face. "But you're still a smart aleck."

"Ah, but you love me anyway." He said as he pricked a baked potatoe on his fork and put it into my mouth.

"Now shut up and eat, Maxie." He said softly as his green eyes darkened when I put my mouth around the potatoe and he slowly pulled back his fork.

_Is this a time to be thinking about sex?_

_Damn that sexmachine._

Alec's loud laughter rang throughout the diner and I looked up at him as if asking what the hell he was laughing at in a time like this.

"Sexmachine? Really?" He said as another round of laughter sounded from his delicious mouth. I flushed involuntarily as I looked up at him from underneath my lashes. His laughter cut off instantly as his eyes darkened again.

"Well, you're quite the 'kitten' yourself." He said, cocky grin firm in place and throwing in a wink.

_Smooth motherfucker._

"Well 'meow' to you, now shut up and eat your food." I grumbled as I looked over at the males that where obviously still eavesdropping.

"Yes, Sir...erm, Ma'am." He said quickly as he dived back in.

"Pig." I commented at his lack of table manners.

"No cat actually." He quipped as he shot me another killer smirk.

I rolled my eyes and continued eating, knowing that if I retorted we would be at this all day.

One of the patrons that was part of an anti genetic group had obviously picked up on the cat remark as I overheard him with my enhanced hearing as he spoke to someone over his cell phone, requesting them to meet him as soon as possible in front of the diner.

"Gotta blaze." I said as I rolled my eyes in a way that let Alec now we needed to get out of here fast. He threw some bills on the table and helped me outside.

We got into the stolen car and sped our way out of there, ending up at Alec's old appartment.

We were still waiting for Dix to call us with Lydecker's number and Alec claimed he wanted to watch his 'boob tube', so we headed inside. I wasn't feeling all that hot, so I decided to lay down on his bed for a bit. A soft growl built inside my chest as the scent of another woman still lingered vaguely in his bedroom, telling me that he had been here with her not that long ago.

Sick or not in that moment I lost all sanity as I pounced on Alec, who was standing in the doorway with his remote in hand. He staggered back and then we were falling. He fell flat on his back with me on top, glaring at him with all the hate and love inside of me.

"Who is she?" I growled as I grinded my core against him, the urge to kill him and to claim him battling a war inside of me.

"Who?" He asked confused as he looked around his appartment.

"The woman your sheets still stink off!" I snarled as I grabbed his manhood firmly in my hand. Alec swallowed visibly and then realization struck, his eyes betraying him that he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"She's a nobody." He said as he tried to shrug it off.

"You cheated on me?!" I cried out the question as I stroked him firmly.

"No! God no, I'd never. Maxie, it was before you and I...She meant nothing to me. You're the only one, I swear. Shit, that feels good." His eyes rolled in the back of his head as he released into my hand and I sank my teeth into his neck.

"You're mine!" I snarled before licking the wound I had given him.

"Only yours, Maxie." He purred at me. A coughing fit broke up the good sex that undoubtedly would have followed and Alec gently carried me into the living room. He placed me on the couch and covered me up with a fresh blanket. Then he hurried into his bedroom and I could see him carrying the sheets to his bathroom, so he could wash the scent of this other woman off. My eyes flickered between him and the television, where they were given reruns of some show from before the Pulse. The show was called Supernatural and however unrealistic, that Dean guy was hot.

I didn't know when I fell asleep, only the fact that when I woke up I was in a very familiar room. An exam room and from the symbols on the merchandise, it was obvious this wasn't any exam room. It was an exam room in New Manticore.

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	14. Chapter 14 : New Manticore

**Disclaimer : Dark Angel isn't mine, I do not own anything.**

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**New Manticore : Alec's point of view**

Max was sleeping peacefully on my couch when the call came in.

"Talk to me." I said, walking into the bedroom so I wouldn't wake up Max.

"_Lydecker still has his office up in Fogley Towers, but apparently he's not really there all that much anymore. I managed to get hold of their phone records and there have been a lot of calls to a medical facility in Gilette, Wyoming as well as one in Spokane, Washington. My guess is he will be in Spokane. I'll send you the number." _Dix said as my phone beeped with a received message.

"Okay, thank you." I said as I held my finger on the end call button, but then he spoke again.

"_What's going on? Why are you looking for Lydecker? Where is Max?" _

"The breeding cult infected Max with a virus that takes out her imune system. The virus is targeted at transhumans and transgenics. We need Deck to fix this, Dix or we'll both die." I explained in cliff notes and then promptly hung up on him. I had no time to waste and surely he would understand that. I dialed the number he sent me and thanked my lucky stars that I got directly connected to Deck's line. After explaining the situation, he ordered the pick up.

I knew there would be strings attached, but I couldn't be worrying about that right now, my only priority was Max.

It didn't take him long, no more then 10 minutes and I was running outside with a stirring Max in my arms and jumped into the chopper, where one of the Ordinary guards injected her with something that would keep her under. I glared at him, but he just shrugged saying that they didn't need her to freak out and contaminate others in the process.

The flight didn't take too long and my breath came out in heavy pants as the facility came to view and nerves I had always learnt to surpress started to get the better of me.

_How much would she hate me for this?_

I reprimanded myself and willed myself to calm down and finally I did.

I gazed at the building that looked so much like the one we grew up in and shook my head as memories started to flood my brain.

_Flashback_

_I was 6 years old as we stood gathered in the forest. Colonel Lydecker explained to us what we were supposed to do and I nodded at everyone in support as we crouched a little, preparing us for the hunt. X5-563 looked a little uncertain as her gaze met mine and as the CO I felt it was my responsability to put her mind at ease._

"_It will be fine, you can do this, 563." I said with an assuring smile. The little blond, blue eyed girl was much closer to me than any of the others and she was like a true sister to me. She nodded briefly but her eyes betrayed that she was not convinced._

_Lydecker counted down the remaining ten seconds and I could feel my body tighten, ready to spring and take down the man heading for the fence._

"_Go!" Lydecker said and then we were running. I had never felt so free in my life, the wind wipping in my face, the adrenaline rushing through my veins. The animal we had to control so badly was finally allowed some freedom and it marveled as we spotted the man with our enhanced night vision. I signalled for the others to split up and attack in a reversed duck formation, leaving me at the end and center of the attack. As we surrounded the man, we could see the smugness that graced his features before had left his face and he was looking at us wide eyed. I grinned at him, because he had been stupid enough to underestimate his enemy. _

_One of the main rules, never underestimate your enemy. But apparently these Ordinaries were too stupid to realise such a thing._

_I gave my unit the signal and we attacked, well they did as I watched. Finally, his body was beaten and bruised beyond recognition. I called of my unit and walked up to the man, who was staring through me. His eyes unfocused from the pain, dying to be put out of his misery._

_I grabbed his head and snapped his neck, nodding at my team for a job well done._

_As I turned I noticed X5-563 standing there wide-eyed, apparently I had missed that she didn't participate in the hunt. I furrowed my brows at her in disapproval, but didn't speak up as I walked past her._

_Lydecker looked pleased, frightened but pleased as he looked over the body._

"_Any problems?" He asked as he came to stand before me._

"_Sir, no Sir!" __I barked as I kept my eyes fixed on a tree just behind his head._

"_Very well done." He praised, but I didn't miss the slight narrowing of his eyes._

_As we reached the entrance to our dorm facilities, he suddenly turned around._

"_494,563 follow me. The rest can head over to the showers and prepare to bunk down." He said as his ice cold glare settled upon me._

_I swallowed thickly as I followed Lydecker with 563 right beside me._

_We walked into his dark office, where he sat down behind his desk sighing heavily._

_He watched us both closely, but we didn't look at each other or Lydecker for that matter, keeping our eyes fixed on a point in front of us. That didn't mean we didn't see every movement from the corner of our eyes as he started thumbing through our files._

"_494, you are an excellent soldier. However, we can't allow you to be dishonest and therefor disrespectful towards your superiors. 5 days in isolation." He passed my sentence and I didn't respond as I kept my eyes still fixed on that damn spot on the wall._

"_563, you will report to Psy Ops immediately. We can't have you not following orders or show weakness. You are a soldier, 563, not a weak cry baby. Move out!" He yelled as he slammed our files on his desk. _

_We, obediently walked down the hallway that led to Psy-Ops._

"_It'll be alright, 563. Just stay strong and remember the good times you shared with our unit." I said as I smiled softly at her. She nodded and then knocked on the door, as I continued down to where the guards station was._

_I informed them of my punishment and a guard named Eldon escorted me to my cell, locking the door behind me._

_End Flashback_

Five months later they informed us that X5-563 had passed away, her body had just given out.

As we touched ground, they instantly placed us in quarantine. I had expected to stay with Max, but they took her away into a different exam room. I sat waiting for a doctor to check me out, but instead Lydecker walked into my exam room with a strange victorious smile on his old face that really freaked me out.

"Hello, Alec. We'll manage to beat this thing, don't worry." He said softly as he looked around the room.

"I'm not worried." I said as I looked him over quickly, noticing that he had no weapons on him but then again why would he. I wasn't actually in a position to fight him now.

"Good." He said as he looked pensive for a moment, making me wonder what evil plots he had in mind for us.

"What is it you want from us, Deck?" I asked, not one to beat around the bush.

"What I always wanted. My children, the perfect soldiers they were made out to be and here under my watchful eye." He said and I frowned, knowing that he was going to put us through reindoctrination, since there was no way Max or I were going down without a fight.

"Reindoctrination? Psy Ops? The works?" I asked with a hint of indifference, although I was anything but indifferent. He nodded once with that damn smug smile I wanted to wipe of his face and then headed back out.

_He's a fool to think I will go down easy._

_Once, we're cured we'll be busting out of this place in no time._

_I hope._

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	15. Chapter 15 : X5452

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**There might be some designations used before, I don't know. I can't memorize every number used before. If this should be the case, I apologize.**

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**X5-452 : Max's point of view**

I am X5-452 and a genetically engineered super soldier. My purpose in life is following orders and obeying my superiors, I do not have any delusions or dreams that might complicate my faith. My home as always been Manticore and my unit that consists of eleven other X5's are the closest thing I have to what people on the outside consider as family. I am second in command, only to be beaten by my CO X5-697 in hand to hand combat and the tank. We do not celebrate birthdays, we do not dine on holidays or whatever other strange habits Ordinaries might have, we train, we fight and we kill. We never truly trust eachother, because that might cause our downfall should one betray us. We do not love for love is a useless emotions that destroys your logic thinking and weakens you.

Yet sometimes I felt as if I didn't belong here.

I took short breaths and then one long deep breath as we made contact with the water.

The guard in the water attached our pants to the rings as Lydecker timed us.

I noticed 261 had some trouble as she started to waive her arms around.

_She shouldn't be doing that._

_It'll only cause her body to become in even more distress._

I signaled at her to keep still, but she was already to far gone as her mouth opened wide as did her eyes.

_Oh shit._

She started gulping but only took in more water as her body struggled to get the oxygen it needed.

I signaled at Lydecker that 261 was in distress, but he just looked on his timer and with a sour face turned away.

_Son of a bitch!_

I looked back to 261 and now she was slumped forward, floating slightly even though she was still attached to the ring, eyes vacant as the stare of death was plain to see in her eyes and I shook my head in disgust at the thought of Lydecker just letting her drown like that.

Lydecker held up his thumb to tell us that the five minutes were up and we could rise whenever we felt as if we were getting in distress. One by one my unit started to rise to the surface. I was number 10 to poke my head out of the water, only leaving our CO X5-697 underwater.

"452, 7 minutes on the dot." Lydecker called out as I gulped in a big breath of air.

I nodded and lifted myself out of the water, waiting for our CO to resurface.

"697, 8 minutes and 41 seconds." Lydecker said as my CO came peeking out of the water.

697 was handsome, dirty blond hair and deep blue eyes, a perfectly chiseled body, but although he had shown his sexual interest in me, I never felt the need to react to his advances.

He smiled at me as he moved to stand beside me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Well done, 452." He complimented and I smiled at him, complimenting him in return.

"I wonder what's for dinner today." 701 said from behind me and I laughed.

X5-701 was a darkhaired, green eyed casanova here on the base, but if there was food involved he would no doubt kick out his conquest of the night, since food was like his own Eden.

"It's wednesday." I said as I rolled my eyes and he just looked up at me expecting.

"Didn't you read the menu this week?" I asked surprised since his whole world revolved around food, surely he'd be the first to be hovering around the mess hall to study the meals we would be served that week.

"Oh put him out of his misery already." 697 said as he smirked at me.

I wanted to smile at him, but then I saw the guard pulling 261 out of the water.

I stopped dead in my tracks as I looked over at the body of my supposedly sister.

"Harvest her organs." Lydecker said and I suddenly felt like retching. My anger flared and my fists clenched as I stepped forward.

"Don't! Let it go, 452." 697 said as he pulled me back and dragged me towards mess hall with him.

I took a deep breath of air and nodded as I let him manhandle me.

_No attachments._

_No pain._

_No love._

_No emotion._

I felt myself calming down and smiled thankfully at 697.

As we sat down at our table, I let 697 bring back a plate for me and looked at the spot were 261 would normally sit. I shook it off and turned towards 203.

"So how were things with 701 last night?" I asked as I smirked at the blush that crept onto her face.

"It was very good. I haven't felt as satisfied in a very long time. Maybe you should try 701 yourself." She said as she smiled brightly.

"Nah, I'm good." I said as I laughed, looking over at the pig in question that was diving into his food as if he had been starving for days.

"Hey, what do you guys think of names?" 541 asked out of nowhere and my head snapped towards him faster than I should have, spooking him a little in the progress.

"No fraternizing, no names!" I growled as I looked at him.

"Come on, 452. I heard someone from unit 9 call his teammate Alec last night. Why wouldn't we try it for ourselves? As long as we only use it in private, it couldn't harm us." 541 said and I stiffened instantly at the name Alec.

_Who is Alec?_

_Why does it sound so familiar?_

_Alec?_

_Why am I acting this way?_

I willed myself to relax and nodded my consent to 541.

"What do you suggest?" 701 asked with a wide smile, his food surprisingly enough temporarily forgotten as he looked excitedly over at 541.

"Maybe we could use the alfabet like those amateuristic codes many children use." 697 piped in.

"What about the zero?" 701 said as he thought over his possible names.

"We fill in any letter to our liking." 697 answered and 701 nodded.

"Gia, Goa, Gua, those names suck. And no Gia, I'm no girl!" 701 growled as he placed his head in his hands.

"So add a letter, how about Guan, sounds a little like Don Juan and that suits you perfectly." I snickered and 701's eyes brightened, nodding eagerly.

"Guan, I like it." He said as he waggled his eyebrows at 203, who flushed bright red again obviously remembering the night before.

"So you would be Deb, 452." 697 said and I nodded my head in acceptance.

"And you're Fig." I snickered at my CO, who just shrugged.

"TC, Bac, Bec, Bic, Boc or Buc, which do you prefer 203?" Fig asked as he looked over at the pretty blonde.

"Bec." She answered flatly and we all nodded.

"Gia." 791 introduced herself, already figuring out her name.

I snickered as I looked at Guan thinking about his reacting to that name only seconds before.

"And you're Eda, dude." Guan snickered at 541, who looked crestfallen. I think he was really wishing he never suggested the name thing.

"That's a chick's name." Fig smirked as he looked at our brother.

"So make it Edan then, that's sounds more manly." I said and 541 nodded his head in agreement.

"What about me?" 333 spoke up and I smirked at him.

"Hiya CCC." Bec said as she looked into his gorgeous green eyes.

"Triple C." I corrected and 333 smiled in relief at my suggestion.

"Eli, because El is too short and Eab sounds terrible. Guan and Edan got to add a letter, so Eli." 512 said and I had to say, I really liked that name best so far. But the brown haired, blue eyed Eli was alwast more the brains than muscles behind our operations, so it was no surprise he would have the best name.

326's brow was furrowed as he overthought his possibilities and I decided to help him a little.

"Caz, Coz, Cuz, Ciz, Cez." 326 kept shaking his head with each name and then his eyes lit up.

"What if we turn it around, Zac instead of Caz. I like Zac." He said and the others all murmured in agreement as I sat rigid in my chair.

_Zac?_

_Why does it sound so familiar?_

_Zac, but wasn't it with a k?_

_ Zack._

_Who is Zack?_

"Alright, Zac it is and then we 687" Fig said as he looked over at the petite redhead.

"FHG, that's just plain weird." Guan commented as he licked his lips taking in our 687 and her blue eyes flashed with anger. She never liked Guan's manwhoring ways.

Her eyes softened as she looked over at Deb and Fig.

"Can I be called Liz? I always liked Liz." She asked sweetly and her commanders couldn't refuse her when she gave them her pouty lips, so they nodded in agreement.

"Tia, instead of Dia, please." 491 said as she licked her rosy plump lips and turned her green cat eyes on Fig, whose eyes widened and then he nodded stiffly.

I chuckled under my breath as the sex deprivated CO nearly creamed himself at Tia's obvious advances.

We didn't have time to try out our new names, as several guards walked into the mess hall indicating it was time to shower and bunk down.

One of them walked straight up to me though and I squared my pose as I stood at attention.

"452, the director wants to see you in his office." The guard said, before he dismissed me.

I walked the hallway leading to Lydecker's office swiftly, keeping my eyes in front of me, but when I spotted a dirty blond X5 with green eyes leaving his office, my heartbeat started to increase. It was pounding so heavily, I thought it would jump out of my chest at any given time and then his eyes locked on mine.

Recognition and an emotion unknown to me shone in his green eyes as he watched me approach the door.

He didn't move as if he was waiting for me to reach him.

"Max." He breathed from next to me as I knocked on Lydecker's door.

_Max?_

_Who is Max?_

_Why am I reacting to him in this way?_

_Who is he?_

I involuntarily turned to look at him and frowned as I noticed how my palms had gotten all sweaty. My breathing excellerated as I got lost in his eyes that looked intently into mine.

"Max, please." He begged and I frowned deeper at him.

"I do not know any Max. I am X5-452." I said as Lydecker's door swung open.

"494, I dismissed you, soldier!" Lydecker growled as he motioned me in.

_494?_

_It means something, but what?_

_It's just a designation, that's all._

_Why does it sound so familiar?_

_What's going on with me today?_

"At ease, soldier." Lydecker said and I instantly changed my stance.

"452, you have done extremely well for the last couple of months." Lydecker complimented me, while confusing me yet again.

_Months?_

_I've been here for years._

"Thank you, Sir." I said respectfully as I kept my eyes on the nail sticking out of the wall.

"We have a mission for you, 452." Lydecker announced and instantly my heart started to race.

It had been years since I had been on a mission and I had been waiting exactly for this opportunity to prove myself.

I smiled involuntarily and Lydecker caught it as he moved directly into my line of sight.

"Excited are we? Very good." He commented as he handed me a manila folder.

"You will be going undercover as Dinah Liu. She's the widow of the late Kaya Liu, CEO of Yanituh Genetics, one of our suppliers. You will have to take over her identity and obtain the position of CEO of her late husband to assure our continuing partnership. Also there is someone within Yanituh Genetic leaking information to our South African enemies. You will find out who it is and get closer to that person. Eliminate him and anyone that poses a threat to us. Do you understand your mission, 452?" Lydecker's gruff voice questioned as he watched me warily.

"Yes, Sir, but..." I started and then bit my tongue, I didn't want to be disobedient.

"Speak freely, soldier." Lydecker said as he thumbed through his own copies of the file.

"Forgive me, Sir, but I'm not of Asian origin. How will I succeed in this undercover mission?" I asked as I kept my eyes once again on the nail.

"Dinah's maiden name was Gomez, she was of Latin-American origin and therefor you fit the profile perfectly. She has no surviving next of kin and has lived mostly in isolation, since her husband kept her sheltered. You will recounter no problems as long as you use your training, 452." Lydecker said as he threw his folder down and opened the door.

"We will start preparations tomorrow. Report at my office at 0700. Dismissed, 452." Lydecker said and I didn't hesitate as I saluted him and walked out of his office.

As I rounded the corner, heading for the showers I ran into 494 again.

"Max." He said as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me against him.

_Creep!_

"Don't touch me!" I growled, but his hand only tightened around my wrist and I could feel my body responding to him in a way it had never done before.

My breathing sped up as I wanted to touch him, but I refrained.

His hands moved to my hips where he held on tightly and then my fist was flying.

He loosened his hold on me as he put a hand in front of his nose.

"I suggest you get to sick bay, 494. It's broken." I said as I walked past him to the showers.

_I should report him to Lydecker._

_Yet, I don't want to report him._

_What's going on with me?_

I showered and headed to my barack, where I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

My dreams were filled with my upcoming mission and a certain soldier, X5-494.

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**Shirley**


	16. Chapter 16 : Holding on

**Disclaimer : I don't own Twilight**

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**Holding on : Alec's point of view**

It had taken the Manticore scientists three days to cook up a cure and since I hadn't been infected quite as long as Max, I only needed a single shot.

They left me in quarantine for four more days, before finally hauling me off and start my reprogramming. I had been through it all before and they never succeeded in fully curing me, so it was no surprise that after seven months I was still the same _Alec_ as I was before, although I pretended to be the soldier they wanted me to be in an attempt to find Max.

Each night I planned our escape and each day I spent looking for her.

I had been assigned to unit 9 for 2 days, when Colonel Lydecker requested my presence in his office. He paced the room angrily as his eyes flickered constantly between me and the floor in front of him. If this was a cartoon, the floor would already be on fire from his pacing and steam would be coming out of his ears from his anger. I stiffled my laughter as I thought of my boob tube and how much I missed it.

"So I heard you were still using that ridiculous name, 494." He started as he turned his ice cold blue eyes on me at last and kept them fixed on me.

I knew what this meant, he would send me back for more torture and maybe even surgery this time.

"What am I to do with you, 494?" He mused to himself as he resumed his pacing.

This went on for another 15 minutes, before he finally stopped in front of me.

"Report at Psy-Ops for further evaluation tomorrom at 0800. Dismissed, 494." He finally said as he motioned me away.

I quickly stood at attention as I put my hand to my head in a salute and then turned on my heel. As I walked out in to the corridor, my head snapped up as a familiar scent infiltrated my senses. There she was, the angel I had been dying to see for months was walking straight towards me, but there was something wrong. Her eyes were cold and vacant as she kept her eyes forward. I stared at her intently, willing her to look at me and then she did. My heart nearly lept out of my chest as her beautiful chocolate brown eyes bored into mine.

Yet, there was no recognition, no emotion in her eyes, she just gazed back at me.

She came to stand next beside me as she knocked on the office door and I turned my body fully toward her.

"Max." I breathed, my desire and longing for her undeniable at the tone of my voice.

She stiffened for a moment and her eyes glazed over, I rejoiced on the inside believing she was remembering, but when she turned her eyes to me no recognition was to be found.

"Max, please." I pleaded with her to remember me, to be herself again and not this empty soldier. I shivered at how Manticore she had become and for a moment I thought that must have been what she thought of me the first time she met me.

Her beautiful face changed as she frowned deeply and finally she spoke.

"I do not know any Max. I am X5-452." She said in an empty tone of voice, almost robotically. I wanted to scream and yell at her just so she would see that she was Max and that she would kick my ass so that things could go back to how they were. I wanted to taunt her and aggravate her so that her natural fire came out, but before I could say anything else, Lydecker's door opened.

"494, I dismissed you, soldier!" He snarled, but I didn't turn to him as I kept my eyes on Max.

Her eyes were glazed over again, but still no recognition. Feeling Lydecker's anger as he stared at me, I finally moved away from them and headed down the corridor.

I waited just behind the corner and luckily I didn't have to wait for too long.

As she rounded the corner, she nearly knocked me over, but side stepped me just in time.

I called out her name and pulled her flush against my body, revelling in her warmth and the feel of her curves against me after all this time as I held on to her wrist tightly.

I expected her to submitt to me and kiss me, but she tried to break free, even calling out for me not to touch her. As I tightened my hold on her, I could feel her responding to my approximity as her nipples stood to attention underneath her shirt and brushed against my chest. I could feel her relaxing against me as her breathing grew almost embarrassingly louder and heavier, but as my hands trailed down to her hips and held her there to keep her steady, her fist suddenly flung out and hit my nose with all her might. I heard the sickening crack as well as I felt the agonizing pain of a broken nose. I clenched my jaw not to make a sound and covered my nose to hide the blood from her view.

"I suggest you get to sick bay, 494. It's broken." She said flippantly, before turning on her heel and heading over to the showers. If it wasn't for the pain, I would be laughing right now.

Max hadn't lost that fire after all and I loved her all the more for it.

I went to the infirmary where I made up a little white lie about running into a wall, which I could tell they didn't really believe and then I went to sleep.

But try as I might, I couldn't close my eyes as thoughts infiltrated my brain.

_Why was she called to Lydecker's office?_

_Was she in some kind of trouble?_

_Hard to believe, because she seemed like the ideal soldier now._

_Was she sent out on a mission?_

_Unlikely, not so soon after her reintegration in Manticore's program._

_What happened to her before?_

_Did they wipe her off her memories?_

_Did they replace her memories with others?_

_How could she not remember him?_

_He still carried her mark, so surely she would be marked as well._

_Is it even possible to forget your mate?_

The entire night I worried about Max. I wasn't worried in the least for my appointment with Psy-Ops, those suckers never managed to get inside my head like they wanted and this time would be no different, but Max though. I decided to try and talk to her in mess hall, obviously she must be there as well. The last couple of days I had still been in a bit of a daze after what those fuckers did to me, but now that I had seen her I found that I could think more clearly again.

_I'll find her tomorrow and talk to her._

_I have to make her remember me._

_I have to make her remember herself._

_And then we'll have hot sex in the showers._

The thought had barely registered in my mind as I felt my groin tighten uncomfortably in my slacks.

I introduced my big soldier to my hand and as soon as my release washed over me, I finally fell into a light sleep.

The next morning I stumbled out to rappel at 0500, looking around anxiously in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her, but I didn't see her.

After our morning jog, we headed to the mess hall at 0600.

"Hey Alec, you alright? You seem a bit out of it today." 149 said as he towered over me.

_Damn, the dude is huge._

"Yeah, I'm fine, Tiny." I said as we walked side by side into the mess hall.

Tiny was my CO and even though I had always been a CO, I knew Lydecker would never trust me with such responsability again. I was after all a flight risk.

I wasn't jealous or anything. Tiny was a nice enough guy and I wouldn't be here for that much longer anyway.

I spotted Max on a table on the opposite side of the room and couldn't look away.

She was sitting there talking to a blonde girl, not even bothering to pick up a plate.

Then I saw a dirty blond with too many muscles sit down beside her, handing her a plate as he placed his own plate in front of her.

Jealousy, unlike I had ever felt before coursed through me as I glared at the X5 that was moving in MY mate.

Before I realized I had moved, I was towering over Big Muscles and had him by the throat.

Max's eyes widened as she saw who was threatening her friend and she got up to her feet.

"494, release him!" She said in an authoritive voice and as I noticed the way the others at her table straightened their backs at her order, I realized she must have been a CO or a SIC.

I tightened my hold on him and his face turned beet red, as I glared at him with the hatred I felt towards him at that moment.

"I will not say again. Release him, soldier!" She growled and even though I didn't want to, I reluctantly dropped him.

She moved to stand between us and turned her back on me as she fussed over her lover.

"Are you alright, Fig?" She asked in a low voice, apparently she expected me not to hear, but I did and I snorted at his stupid nickname.

"I'm fine, Deb." He said as he moved his head around her to glare at me.

_Deb?_

_Short for Debby?_

_What kind of name is that?_

_Max suits her much better._

_And why am I even thinking about this._

_Max is her name!_

_End of discussion._

She walked briskly towards the doors as she motioned for me to follow her.

As we closed the doors behind us, I looked around the corridor quickly to see if there were any guards to listen in on our conversation.

Before I could say anything, her fist connected with my jaw.

"What the hell is wrong with you, 494?" She growled as she clenched her fist at her sides and visibly calmed herself down.

"Max, please, you have to remember." I said as I looked deeply into her eyes.

For a moment I thought I saw something like affection flickering in her eyes, but it was masked with the vacant stare again much too soon for my liking.

"My name is not Max. I am 452 and I do not have a name." She said as she raised her chin defiantly.

"Oh really, Deb." I said with a smirk as she frowned again and cursed silently.

"That was not my idea. If it had been up to me such insubordination would never have been allowed, but the majority of my unit were seemingly pleased with the idea of a name." She said and with each word my heart ached.

_This is not my Max._

_My Max would never have frowned upon the idea of fraternizing._

_No, she would have encouraged it._

"Max, you need to try and remember." I started and she placed her hands on her hips, daring me to go on.

"If you can't remember me, your own mate, then remember Ben, remember Zack, Logan, OC, Joshua, Jondy, Tinga, Brin, Skit and all the others. Please try, Max. You need to remember." I said in a pleading voice as my eyes never left hers. I could have swore I saw a flicker of something on occasion but didn't dare to hope.

"What's your name?" She finally asked as she took a step back from me, her body once again responding to me being so near to her.

"Alec." I said and her eyes widened before her face scrunched up as if she was trying to remember something really bad.

Finally, she sighed and shook her head.

"Alec." She started and my heart skipped a beat at hearing her say my name. Nothing ever sounded as wonderful as my name on her lips.

"Sometimes things sound familiar, but if there really is something to remember I can't force it. Surely you know that the more a patient with amnesia tries to force her memories, the longer they keep at bay. If I truly am this Max person, it will come to me." She said, before looking me over, licking her lips and heading back inside.

She did have a point and although I didn't like the idea of waiting too long for her to remember things, I would do as she said, since that was what I always did when it came to Max. She truly was the only person that could make me listen to her.

I smirked at that thought and then headed back inside of the mess hall, where I rejoined my unit.

"What was that all about?" Tiny asked and I wordlessly tugged down the collar of my shirt, revealing the two big bitemarks that would scar me for life. The claims laid upon me by my mate.

"You're mated? To 452?" He asked incredulously and I nodded, before quickly putting a finger to my lips to ensure his silence. He nodded his head and then looked sympathetically at me.

"She'll remember, Alec. You have to believe that." He said in a soft voice and I looked at him in surprise.

"It's not that hard to figure out. A reformed soldier gets placed in the unit, not only a soldier but a SIC at that. Her unit treats her as if she has been with them for years instead of months and somehow she only knows her unit, where others know practically everyone. Her unit had been called away one day and the day after they returned with her. They must have done a number on all of them, making them believe she had been there all the time. Ofcourse, we all noticed it, but no one spoke about it. The thing is, all that screwing with our minds, it never sticks. Soldiers start to remember bits and pieces after a while and in the end she will be a monthly patient at Psy-Ops, where they constantly update her memory to keep her from remembering. Just let it come to her, it will be fine." He said as he took a big bite of his muffin and then turned towards our SIC.

_It will be fine._

_As long as I can get her out as soon as she remembers and she doesn't end up at Psy-Ops again that is._

_Yeah, it'll be fine._

_I'll just have to hold onto that._

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**So what did you guys think?**

**Let me know.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	17. Chapter 17 : Mission

**Disclaimer : I do not own Twilight**

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**Mission : Max's point of view**

I had easily evaded the security camera's on the domain as I picked the lock of the back door and headed inside.

I blurred through the kitchen down the hallway and up the stairs. I located the fourth door that led into the master bedroom and walked inside.

"Rita, is that you?" The exotic looking woman asked as she continued to put her earrings in.

"Don't you remember? You fired her last night." I said as I moved to fast for her to follow and held her in a chokehold.

Her eyes grew wide as she looked straight into my eyes in the mirror. I sighed as I moved my hands and snapped her head. I never did enjoy killing, but it was part of the job.

"Clean up team, move in!" I ordered through my walkie talkie as I took the earrings she was holding and put them in.

Four men came in through the back door and I hurried downstairs to keep an eye on them.

Two of them headed to the bedroom to take the body and the other two replaced all the current pictures with pictures of me and the late Mr. Liu that Manticore had made with the help of modern technology.

They nodded at me as they went out the way they had come.

Manticore had made sure that Rita Kinders, the maid and Tom Boone, the gardner had been laid off. Guan and Liz would be taking their place and help keep an eye on things. I smiled as I thought of my teammates who would be here in about two hours.

I examined my new home for the next month or longer if I couldn't end this mission soon enough and sighed wistfully.

It was a beautiful white mansion that exuded wealth and luxury.

Downstairs was a kitchen filled with every modern appliance imaginable, a dining room with beautiful rich colours like ivory and burgundy, a sitting room with a state of the art 'bube toob' _Huh where did that word come from? _Television, I mean, several leather couches and shelf upon shelf filled with books and finally an office, which I would explore more thoroughly later. Upstairs was the master bedroom, two smaller rooms and two bathrooms.

Both floors were carpeted everywhere with that fluffy beige carpet that you commonly see at rich people's houses, except for the kitchen which was tiled with a dark granite.

I decided to watch some television, something that was rarely condoned back at Manticore as I waited for Guan and Liz to arrive.

I watched the news for a while, when they suddenly mentioned a place called Terminal City that made warning bells go of in my head.

_Terminal City?_

_Why does it sound so familiar?_

_Have I ever been there?_

_Not as far as I know._

I turned up the volume anyone, somehow not able to get rid of the fascination that I was feeling all of the sudden.

"_The human right activists on the transgenic side are growing in number and earlier today there has been a riot between the Pro-Transgenics activists and the Anti-Transgenic group that ironically enough had to be put to a halt by the transgenics themselves. Watch the exclusive footage with us." _The anchor woman said and then the image changed as they showed us the tiff that had taken place.

People were shouting as they charged each other confident in their own beliefs.

One man that appeared to be against people of my kind pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the opposing protesters. That's when about 20 transgenics and 10 transhumans strolled casually through the gates towards the violence. My heart stopped for a moment as the camera zoomed in on a transhuman that looked as if Manticore had put far too much canine DNA in his cocktail.

_Short flashbacks._

"_Cat in cocktail." The dogman said as he sniffed the air in what appeared to be the basement back at Manticore.._

_-_

"_Hey big fella." My voice said as I moved past him._

"_Hey little fella." He answered and I turned my head to look at him. He smiled sweetly before turning back to a canvas where he was paining on._

_- _

"_Joshua, no!" I called out as I ran towards the dogman that had a man in a suit bent over his knee, set on snapping the man's back._

"_He deserves to die! He killed Annie!" The dogman answered with a vicious growl, not able to keep the anger out of his voice._

_-_

_"No, little fella not okay. Alec also not okay. Little fella need to talk to Alec." The dogman said as he squeezed my shoulder_

_"Why would I do that? I don't want to talk to that arrogant-" I started to say, but something made me stop._

_"Little fella not fool Joshua. She confused. Little fella need to talk to Alec. Not be confused anymore."Dogman stated in a tone of voice as if he was speaking to a small child_.

_End flashbacks._

"Joshua." I whispered as I stared at the transhuman in question on the screen.

His name made my heart clench and brought tears to my eyes. It almost felled as if I missed this man I had never met. I shook my head to rid it of these ridiculous ideas and focused better on the fight occuring.

Our kind easily broke up the fight, only having to fight off a couple of the Anti-Transgenic group, that pulled back swiftly as knowledge that they could never beat them sunk in.

Several of the transgenics were checking over the humans for injuries, at least those that were on our side.

The image changed back to the anchor lady and this time there was an African – American woman standing next to her.

_"You state that they are every bit as human as us, yet they are created in labs and are partly animal as well as human."_ The brunette said before holding out the mic for the familiar woman to speak in.

_"My boo has been my best friend for years and I never noticed anything inhuman about her. When she told me her past, I never for a second thought of abandoning my boo. She feels, she loves and she hurts like the rest of us. Aren't that typical human traits?"_ The girl answered as she looked straight into the camera. **(AN: She's talking in proper sentences because she's on tv :) )**

"That's right, girl! You tell them!" I exclaimed, before quickly clapping my hands in front of my mouth, wondering where the hell that had just come from.

_And why does she look so familiar?_

The anchorlady looked puzzled on how to respond to that and as she mulled the words over in her head, the other woman grabbed the mic again.

"_Boo, if you're out there, we miss you. We need you and your boy to come home. Original Cindy can't live without her boo. Please Max, find your way back." _The girl, Original Cindy said with a look of pure desperation on her face that made me want to comfort her.

I quickly clicked off the television as buzzer for the gate sounded. I walked down to the office and looked at the small screen to find Guan staring back at me. I pressed the button to buzz him in and quickly opened the front door for him to enter.

"Where's Liz?" I asked as soon as he stepped inside. He didn't bother to hide his awe for the place as he whistled lowly while looking around.

"Oh, she'll be here in a couple of minutes. She wanted to remain inconspicuous by arriving at different times." Guan explained, before plopping himself down in one of the couches.

His eyes raked over my body and he whistled again, before licking his lips.

"No chance in hell, Don Juan." I bit, to which he just winked at me with an evil smirk on his face.

I laughed internally as I thought about the poor guy.

_The biggest manwhore of Manticore and he ends up with the two women he'll never get with._

_I am just not interested and Liz hates his guts because of his whoring ways._

I didn't have a lot of time to ponder about it though, because the buzzer sounded alerting me to the fact that the redhead in question had arrived. Her petite frame flew into the house as she headed straight into the kitchen.

"Anyone else hungry?!" She called out and the words had barely left her mouth or Guan breezed past me towards the kitchen.

"Do you even have to ask?" I heard him say and then a loud thud following. I went to check out what had happened to find Guan on the floor as Liz was casually making some sandwiches. She glared over at me as she felt my questioning stare on her.

"He pinched my ass." She said in a clipped tone and I nodded in understanding.

_Great!_

_I'm stuck here with Mr. Eat-a-lot and when he's not doing that he's banging the conquest of the night, and Mrs. I hate the world and have a more fiery temper than my red hair can even hint at._

_This is going to be an interesting mission!_

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**So she is beginning to remember.**

**Her memories are still triggered by faces, but Psy-Ops is not around to lock them away again.**

**What will happen now?**

**What did you guys think?**

**Review please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	18. Chapter 18 : Files

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**I also want to apologize for mixing up the disclaimer in the last couple of chapters. I am writing 4 different stories on Fanfiction right now and I got it mixed up.**

**Sorry.**

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**Files : Alec's point of view**

I growled when I noticed the still vacant spots at Max's table.

She had been gone for 4 days and I didn't even know if she was being punished for something or not. Maybe someone had overheard our conversation and they had put her back in Psy-Ops along with two others who might have started to remember she didn't really belong there.

Tiny clapped my back as he followed my gaze and before I could stop him, he was wolking over to their unit.

"697." He greeted Max's CO, gripping his hand firmly.

"149." The one Max called Fig that day said as he smiled widely at the other CO.

"I justed want to apologize for one of my men, who had been misinformed. 494?" Tiny called out and I appeared right up behind him. Fig looked suspicious at me as he raised his brow at Tiny.

"One of your men, huh?" He remarked and Tiny nodded.

"And what is this misunderstanding?" Fig asked as he looked me straight in the eyes, showing me that he wasn't afraid and surely wouldn't back off if this turned into a fight.

"452." I said simply as I glared at him, I still didn't like how close he had sat next to her and the way he touched her.

"And what is she to you?" Fig asked as he challenged me with his eyes and a smug smile I just wanted to wipe off his face.

Tiny answered the question for him as he tugged down the collar of my shirt and exposed the bitemark. Fig's face scrunched up in confusion, before he looked over at his unit. All of them shrugged stating that they didn't know anything about Max being mated.

"You're imagining things, dude. If she was your mate, we would have known and she wouldn't have spent her time with us during breaks." Fig said as he got up and inspected the mark closer.

"She's mine, why else would I attack you with no apparent reason?" I snapped as I pushed him back.

"He does have a point." A beautiful blonde girl said as she appraised me.

We argued back and forth for a little while, untill they all accepted the fact that we had mated and shortly after they had taken away her memories.

I asked where I could find Max and they informed me that three of their unit, Max, Liz and Guan had been sent away on a mission.

Ofcourse, none of them were given details about this mission, so with some convincing Tiny and I were going to sneak into Lydecker's office.

As we watched him escort Unit 1 to the tank, our unit was on the move.

_Making friends with the CO sure makes everything easier._

"Okay, we've got about ten minutes." Tiny said as he picked the lock and we headed inside, the others were keeping watch at different locations.

Tiny moved to Lydecker's laptop, while I went through his file cabinet.

I could feel my heart racing as I quickly scanned the files and grabbed the folder with Max's designation on it.

The file contained her genetic make up, reports on her trainings and medical history.

As my eyes scanned quickly over the content, my world suddenly came to a stop.

I swallowed thickly as tears stung my eyes and I forced them back.

_This couldn't be?_

_How?_

_She had been in heat the first time we were intimate and it was supposed to be the most fertile period._

_But why?_

_Not even Lydecker could be so cruel._

_Or was I wrong all along?_

My hands shook violently as I tried to keep a firm grip on the folder in my hands.

I gathered the documents that laid sprawled out across the floor quickly and shoved them back in the folder. The one containing her medical history on top as my eyes flew to that one word again.

**ABORTED**

Anger unlike anything I had ever felt surpressed the grief and mourning as I placed the folder back in the cabinet with trembling hands.

_I'm going to kill him._

_Where does he get the right to abort our child?_

_Who does he think he is?_

_God?_

_Your number is up, Deck!_

_I'm coming for you now!_

Tiny broke through my murderous thoughts as he closed the laptop with a thriumphant grin.

"She's in Bellevue, Washington." He said and I nodded, before we slipped soundlessly out of the office.

We had planned to resume training so it would seem we had never left, but I couldn't.

I marched straight over to the tank, with Tiny hot on my heels.

"Alec? What are you doing?" He whispered frantically as he grabbed a hold of me in an attempt to keep me back.

"He killed my baby!" I snarled and Tiny's eyes widened.

"What do you mean? What baby?" He asked, but as soon as the words left his mouth, realization dawned on him.

"He didn't." He whispered more to himself than me and I grabbed his wrist, pulling it away from my shirt, before I marched into the training room that held the much feared 'Tank'.

"Donald Lydecker!" I snarled and Deck's eyes narrowed as he turned towards me.

"494! You will learn your place in this facility, starting by adressing me with my given title." He said in that condescending tone of his that made me want to kill him even more.

"When I'm through with you, there will be no need for titles, Deck!" I growled, before lunging at him.

I didn't reach him though as I was quickly restricted by several teammembers of unit 1.

"Put him in isolation, no food and no water!" Lydecker ordered as two strong soldiers dragged me away from the man that killed my baby, the man that made my mate forget all about me, the man that tormented us as children, the man that could only be described as the devil.

I tried fighting them off all the way over to the basement, but they were too strong and I was built for stealth not sheer force.

As they tossed me into the cell, a guard securing the door as soon as they stepped out, I screamed a bloodcurling scream.

_You can put me in here, Deck, but I won't forget._

_My hate will grow and fester and when you finally release me, you won't know what hit you._

_You're mine, motherfucker!_

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**I'm getting tired of all the tragedy, from now on things are going to look up.**

**Don't you agree?**

**Let me know what you thought.**

**Reviews please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	19. Chapter 19 : Dreams of the past

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Sorry it took a little longer to update, but life is getting real crazy right now.**

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**Dreams of the past : Max's point of view**

_Violent tremors ran over my young body as I shook in my bed, my pillow already wet with transpiration and the urge to kick of my cover was great but I could not find the strenght to push it away from my body as I laid on my side. I sighed as a cold wind caressed my back, but then a foreign heat was pressed up against me._

"_Sssh, it'll pass. It has to pass, Maxie." A blonde boy said as he placed his head on my shoulder, looking down at my face._

"_B-Ben, p-please." I tried, but the shaking was to much and no words would leave my mouth._

"_Sssh, I'm here. I won't let the anomolies have you. I'm here, Maxie. I'll never let anything happen to you. And the Blue Lady will protect us. You have to believe in the Blue Lady, Maxie." Ben said as he hugged me and spooned my body from behind._

_My body relaxed as our hearts started beating in the same rhythm and the tremors slowly faded away._

_-_

_The young me shot upright in her bed as she looked around the room frantically and then visibly relaxed slightly. Still feeling too much on edge to settle back down in her bed, her bare feet hit the cold tiled floor and softly padded to a bed nearby._

_I stopped in front of a bed and looked over at the blonde boy that was already holding up the covers. Not hesitating, I crawled into the bed and turned to lie with my face towards his on my side._

"_It's alright now, Max. It was just a bad dream." The boy said as he pecked me on the forehead and looked into my eyes with the softest and kindest gaze I had ever seen._

"_But it was so awful, Zach. I was shaking and then I was lying on a cold, metal table._

_Lydecker was there, watching as the scientist cut me open and harvested my organs._

_Then they drank my blood and left me with the anomolies. Zach, am I a weak soldier? Will the anomolies eat me for all eternity?" I whimpered a little as I snuggled into the crook of his arm._

"_I'll never let them take you. __I'd die first!" __Zach exclaimed as he pulled me closer into his body._

_-_

_I fell to the floor shaking and was helped to my foot quickly as Zach kicked the guard and Eva grabbed his gun._

_We busted through the door on our search for the nearest exit, but guards were closing in and Eva, who just so happened to hold the gun appeared to be the biggest threat as they gunned her down. We backtracked quickly and cornered at our dormitories, fear gripped us._

_Extermination would be unavoidable, that or psy-ops._

_Zach signaled at the window and then we were on the ground below, running for our lives._

_I ran alongside a girl, but fell through the ice. I looked at a girl screaming my name, before soldiers came into our view and she ran._

_As the area seemed to be vacated, I broke through the ice and blurred as fast as possible too the edge of the forest._

_-_

_I had been walking along the side of the highway, keeping open the possibility of disappearing behind the tree line if an enemy vehicle should approach as a car approached._

_I hesitated for a moment but then noticed this was not one of our vehicles and remained standing on the side of the road._

"_Get in, quickly." The woman had said and after repeating the same thing a couple of times, I finally climbed into her car and hit at the feet of the passenger's seat._

_-_

_I was hiding underneath a staircase with an older girl as we watched a drunk man approach us._

_-_

"_It's okay, Max. This is the only way he won't touch you." The same darkhaired girl said as a painful looking bruise was visible on her left cheek._

_-_

_A blonde girl and the African American from the television stood in front of her as they stared her down._

"_We flushed it down the toilet." The black girl said as she crossed her arms defiantly._

"_You don't understand! I need those pills. It's a matter of life or death." I said as I could feel myself starting to panic._

_-_

"_If you stay here, you risk tactical exposure. Or have you forgotten everything they taught us?" A blonde man asked as he looked into my eyes._

"_No, but I'm trying real hard at it. You're still back at Manticore. Maybe I'm chasing a sentimental lie, but at least I'm trying to get away from it." I answered with annoyance and accusation plain in my voice._

"_I can't be responsible for you if you won't listen." He said dismissively and disapproving at the same time._

"_Zack, don't go, please." My voice sounded pleading and I could feel tears sting at my eyes as I blinked them back quickly._

"_I have to. They did a good job on you, Max, you turned out okay." He said as he looked me up and down quickly and then turned away._

_-_

_I was fighting Alec? in the woods, when I heard the snap of his leg breaking. He fell to the ground and I got over to him intent on helping him up as the sounds of helicopters became more louder with each second._

"_Don't leave me here, don't let them take me." Alec pleaded as he looked up at me with fear evident in his eyes._

"_Ben, I can't carry you. We'll both get caught." I said to Ben? as the helicopters got closer and closer._

"_I know." He said as he looked up at me with a pleading look._

"_Ben, I can't." I responded to his pleading gaze as I tried to calm myself down._

"_Please! You know what they'll do to me! They'll put me down there with them. The Nomalies. Please." Ben's voice broke as he pleaded me to kill him. I could feel the tears starting to sting my eyes as I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat._

"_Tell me about the good place." I said with an even voice that took everything in me to keep it that way. Ben smiled up at me sweetly, a little spark of the child he used to be visible in his eyes._

"_Where no one ever gets punished." He started._

"_And no one gets yelled at." I helped him on the way, so that I could do this without his conscious knowledge. If he were to look at me, I would not be able to go through with this._

"_And nobody disappears. And when you wake up in the morning, you can stay in bed as long as y- SNAP" His voice died down as I twisted his head between my hands and broke his neck. My body shuddered briefly and involuntarily at the sound of my brother's end._

_Tears started to form and fall freely as I held onto Ben's body. _

_-_

"_Lucky we hooked up." I said and noticed the little smile around the mouth of this mystery man with the glasses._

"_Happy anniversary." He said as he brushed the hair out of my face._

_-_

_I sat on the bank in my cell back at Manticore as the door suddenly opened and in walke Ben._

"_What?" Ben asked, confusion written all over his face. Obviously he was not the man she had killed with her own two hands._

"_You look like someone I used to know." I said as I swallowed the uncomfortable lump in my throat as well as ignoring the pain in my chest at the thought of Ben._

"_Well, my designation is 494." The Ben look a like said as he looked up at her briefly, with his I don't give a shit attitude._

"_His was 493. You must be twinned." I said in an attempt to explain this more to myself than him. _

"_493, your fellow traitor. Went psycho." The man said as he nodded at her and then made a face at the psycho remark._

"_What do you know about it?" I asked defensively, annoyed already by this cocky son of a bitch that acted so superior to other._

"_I know that because of him I had to spend six months in Psy-Ops. They wanted to make sure it wasn't genetic. Looks like ten years in the world finally got to him." He said with a hint of anger and even hatred towards Ben._

"_It was THIS place that got to him." I said, my anger not as well concealed as this smart-aleck's._

"_Whatever, let's get this over with." He said as he pulled off his grey shirt. My eyes widened as they roamed over his muscular chest._

"_What are you doing?" I asked with maybe a hint of hysteria._

"_We've been paired off, I'm your breeding partner." He said flippantly as if it was the most normal thing in the world._

"_We're supposed to copulate every night untill you get pregnant." He continued at my outrageous WHAT?_

"_That's sick!" I exclaimed, before fighting verbally and physically with this macho man._

_After a little trade with the guard, he finally laid down on my bunk to rest untill he could go back to his cell as I hugged my knees in the corner._

-

"_I told you my designation is 494." The man said as they were once again standing in her cell, this time slightly less hostile towards each other though._

"_Doesn't suit you. I'm going to call you Alec." I said as I waited for his clever come back._

"_Alec?" He asked, seemingly trying out how it sounded from his own mouth._

"_As in smart aleck." I quipped and to my surprise he didn't bite._

"_I can live with that." Was his simple response as he even smiled slightly._

"_Good, cause my second choice was Dick." I mouthed off a little myself this time, but didn't mind as Alec bid me goodnight and left my cell for the night._

_**End dream sequences**  
_

I shot upright in my bed breathing hard as sweat ran down my face.

_He wasn't lying._

_It's all true!_

_Oh God, Alec!_

_I remember!_

_And I left him there with Lydecker!_

I swung my feet out of bed and quickly ran towards the dresser.

_I will get him and everyone else out of there._

_I've done it before, I can do it again._

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**A lot of memories, I know.**

**I hope you liked it.**

**Let me know.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	20. Chapter 20 : Fallen

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**For all of you who have reviewed and also because I kept you waiting so long on the previous chapter, I'm updating another one especially for you guys :)**

**Surprisingly, this will be another one from Max.**

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**Fallen : Max's point of view**

"We can't just abort this mission, Deb." Liz growled as her knife came down so hard one the cucumber that it went straight through the wooden board underneath.

"Then think of something to prospone this mission, but I'm going!" I said as I plopped down on the couch and put up my feet.

"How about you go to the funeral and then to his lawyer for the reading of the will, afterwards you can say you need a vacation first to get over this tragedy." Guan proposed as he looked pleadingly up at me. I was very well aware of the guards keeping an eye on us and I must say it was a good way not to compromise the mission, but buy us time as well.

Ofcourse, I didn't give a flying fuck about the mission, but if I bailed now Liz and Guan would take the fall and there is ofcourse the fact that they would shoot me on first sight.

I got changed quickly and as I descended the stairs in my black tight dress that came just below my knees with black pumps and a diamond bracelet, Guan's jaw dropped to the floor.

"Oh quit drooling, I'm going to a funeral for God's sake!" I growled as I passed him and literally shut his mouth by lifting his chin.

The funeral was boring at the most, but I did notice one possible suspect by the way he kept shifting his feet uncomfortably and glanced behind him at the road. I filed it away for later and went about my bussiness pretending to be the griefstricken wife.

The lawyer didn't tell me anything new, since Manticore had already informed me that I would become CEO of Yanituh Genetic. I told him of my plans to take some time away first since I was to grieved to even consider fulfilling such a task at the time being and he bought it. He phoned the vice president of our company, a Mr. Langdon and asked him to run the company temporarily untill I had recovered from this tragedy.

Mr. Langdon seemed to be all too eager to take the reigns and agreed wholeheartedly.

We made contact with Lydecker to confirm that first meeting had gone well, but that people where suspicious of a woman who could stand her man shortly after the death of her husband and that I had made up a cover story. I informed him of my alleged retreat to get over the loss of my husband and Lydecker even praised me for my quick thinking.

As we drove the jeep towards the base, a song came on that instantly had my mind wandering.

(**AN: **_**Lyrics ; **__Max's flashbacks and thoughts)_

_**Heaven bent to take my hand  
And lead me through the fire **_

_Zach taking my hand as we ran into safety, before he sent us away in pairs.__**  
Be the long awaited answer  
To a long and painful fight **_

"_Don't you ever listen? You're it, man! Time's running out. It's coming." C.J's voice sounded in my head.___

_**Truth be told I've tried my best **_

_I tried to stay anonymous__**  
But somewhere along the way  
I got caught up in all there was to offer **_

_OC, Kendra, Sketchy, Herbal, Logan and even Normal__**  
And the cost was so much more than I could bear **_

_Zach, Ben, Brin, Biggs, Ceecee, ...___

_**Though I've tried, I've fallen... **_

_A stupid disease__**  
I have sunk so low  
I have messed up **_

_And I'm back where I never wanted to go again.__**  
Better I should know  
So don't come round here  
And tell me I told you so... **_

"_Love is for the weak." Lydecker said as he frowned disapprovingly at the affection my unit showed for eachother.___

_**We all begin with good intent **_

_We just wanted to be free__**  
Love was raw and young **_

_They did it out of love, for me.__**  
We believed that we could change ourselves  
The past could be undone **_

_I helped Logan with all those missions to redeem myself.__**  
But we carry on our backs the burden **_

_The tattoo, the seizures and my heat are constant reminders.__**  
Time always reveals  
The lonely light of morning  
The wound that would not heal  
It's the bitter taste of losing everything **_

_I know what loss is, nobody can relate more.__**  
That I have held so dear.**_

_**I've fallen...  
I have sunk so low  
I have messed up  
Better I should know  
So don't come round here  
And tell me I told you so...**_

_**Heaven bent to take my hand  
Nowhere left to turn **_

"_Where are you bitches hiding!?" The slurred words came from my enraged fosterfather as he searched the house for us.__**  
I'm lost to those I thought were friends  
To everyone I know **_

"_They would have used surrogate mothers to carry you to term after the in-vitro work. If I can track one of them down"__Logan said, knowing that I couldn't refuse him if it meant he could locate the others.__**  
Oh they turned their heads embarassed  
Pretend that they don't see **_

_I didn't want to admit my own brother was a killer__**  
But it's one missed step  
You'll slip before you know it  
And there doesn't seem a way to be redeemed **_

_Ben killed so many innocent people as a sacrifice to the Blue Lady, desperate to hang on to that belief that she would one save us all, while in reality we make our own life and our own destiny.___

_**Though I've tried, I've fallen...  
I have sunk so low  
I have messed up **_

_And now I'm no better._

_Lydecker has made me kill once again._

_The lady never did anything wrong and she didn't deserve it._

_So she was married to a man that had a binding contract with Manticore._

_That still doesn't excuse her death._

_And I was the one to snap her neck.__**  
Better I should know  
So don't come round here  
And tell me I told you so...**_

_"You're like a wolf in sheep's clothing, Max! You're hiding your instincts, every minute of every day, so that no one will know what you really are. A soldier...a hunter...a killer." Ben's words echoed in my mind over and over again as I tried to block out any more sounds._

I don't know how much longer I sat lost in thought, but soon enough we were driving through the gates that led to our base, New Manticore.

"X5-452, 687 and 701 at your service, Sir!" I barked as we simultaneously saluted Lydecker and took our position.

"At ease." Lydecker called as he looked back over his shoulder at me.

"452, report!" He barked as he plopped himself down in his leather chair.

"Infiltration was succesful, undercover identities were not compromised. Slight change of plans to avoid suspecion. One possible suspect identified, Sir!" I said as my eyes were fixed on a tiny crack in the wall and no emotions were visible on my face.

_The perfect Manticore soldier_

My stomach turned at the thought, but I kept my composure as I waited for him to speak.

"Elaborate on suspect, 452." He said as he got out of his chair and sat with one leg on the desk, the other still firmly on the ground.

"Gordon Langdon, 38 years old, Vice president at Yanituh Genetic has displayed suspicious and anxious behaviour at the funeral. Currently running the corporation in my absence, Sir." I reported as I still kept my eyes fixed on the wall.

"Are you telling me that our prime suspect, the man we believe to leak information to our competition is running the bussiness, 452?" There was a dangerous undertone in Lydecker's tone of voice, but I wasn't a little child anymore and his vocal threats did not frighten me as before.

"Yes, Sir!" I barked as I concealed the smile that was desperately trying to break out across my face.

"How could you be so stupid, 452!" He howled and I briefly at to bite my lip as he turned away from us and rubbed the back of his neck in obvious distress.

"Not a matter of stupidity, Sir. Langdon has the highest function besides Mrs. Liu, appointing someone else to be in charge during my absence would only arouse unnecessary questions, Sir." I said as my Manticore mask slipped back effortlessly at the exact moment Lydecker turned towards us again.

"Very well. Two weeks and then you are all going back in." Lydecker said as he looked us over one by one.

"Dismissed." He called out as he turned away from us and took his mug of coffee in his hands.

Triple C walked past us and quickly signalled Alec's location as we were directly in the path between him and the camera's so the movement would remain undetected. I gave him a small smile to convey that I had gotten the message and then as we rounded the corners, I started to creep down the halls careful to avoid guards and camera's alike.

As I reached the isolation cells, I tapped in morse on the first door and soon I heard a reply coming from the fourth cell. I slid open the visor and looked in.

"Max?" Alec's groggy voice asked and I nearly cried as I saw him laying there. His skin was showing first effects from dehydration, his lips were chapped and his the light in his eyes was gone. I took my pocket knife and made a small cut on my lower arm, before sticking my arm through the bars.

"Drink it." I ordered as Alec's face scrunched up in disgust.

"I know it looks gross, but it'll help you survive. You need fluid and some nutrients, now drink it!" I ordered again as I looked around to check for guards again.

"It's no use, Max. Lydecker won't let me out of here. I'll die here anyway, so I am not going to drink your blood like some vampire." Alec said weakly as he turned to lay on his side.

"I'll bring you some food and water later. In meantime I will think of something to get you out of here and both our asses the hell out of Manticore." I said as I once again looked into those beautiful green eyes. Alec nodded weakly before telling me to go back before I got caught. I blew him a kiss and then mentally slapped myself at the silly gesture.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I reached the showers undetected and went about the rest of our daily routine.

My mind racing as hundreds of different scenarios flashed before my eyes, determined to find a way out of here.

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**Love, **

**Shirley**


	21. Chapter 21 : We are

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews.**

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**We are : Alec's point of view**

I don't know how long I had been down there, but I did not know it had been a couple of days since Max appeared. That night she had fed me and given me three bottles of water, which I hid under my matress. She hadn't been back though and it worried me gravely as I sat rotting away in my cell, unable to do anything to keep my mate safe.

I heard some commotion down the hall, but couldn't make out the actual words or sounds in my dark cell and since the visor was closed I couldn't sneak a peek either.

Suddenly my cell door was being unlocked and I hurried over to investigate, staying flat against the wall as I turned the handle with my arm, careful not to expose my body to possible guns aimed at me. When I convinced myself enough that all was clear, I hurried outside my cell and ran towards the stairs. I noticed a blond haid with pink highlights that belonged undoubtedly to Stripe rounding the corner.

_How did she get in here?_

_What is she doing here?_

To my surprise I didn't cross a single guard on my path and as soon as I ran out into the courtyard, I noticed why. All the X5 units, along with some lost friends from TC were keeping guards, scientists and big shots like Lydecker under gun shot.

"_I always wanted to be a DJ and here's my chance." _Stripe giggled as her soft voice came over the speakers and all over the compound.

"_I dedicate this song to Donald Lydecker! Let's get this party started!" _She yelled out and then she jumped from the second floor window that belonged to the control room down to the courtyard, landing perfectly on her feet.

_**See the devil on the doorstep now (my oh my)**_  
_**Telling everybody oh just how to live their lives**_

_Lydecker and Renfro were our devils then, always keeping us under their control._  
_**Sliding down the information highway**_  
_**Buying in just like a bunch of fools**_

_We always did exactly what they wanted from us, without question, without doubt._

_We did what we were trained to do like the perfect Manticore soldiers we were._  
_**Time is ticking and we can't go back (my oh my)**_

_**What about the world today**_  
_**What about the place that we call home**_

_I miss Terminal City_  
_**We've never been so many**_  
_**And we've never been so alone**_

_**You keep watching from your picket fence**_  
_**You keep talking but it makes no sense**_  
_**You say we're not responsible**_  
_**But we are, we are**_

_You might have ordered us to kill, but we were the ones that pulled the trigger._  
_**You wash your hands and come out clean**_  
_**Fail to recognise the enemies within**_

_We are the enemy and you should have seen it Lydecker._

_No living thing can be pleased with being created in such a way, for such gruesome purposes and never revolt against those that force this life upon him._  
_**You say we're not responsible**_  
_**But we are, we are, we are, we are**_

_**One step forward making two steps back (my oh my)**_  
_**Riding piggy on the bad boys back for life**_  
_**Lining up for the grand illusion**_

_We built a life outside of Manticore, but at the first sign of something going wrong, we were back in this awful place._

_We played our parts well in this illusion you created_  
_**No answers for no questions asked**_  
_**Lining up for the execution**_  
_**Without knowing why**_

_If it had been a couple of years back, we probably wouldn't even blinked if you did point a gun to our heads._

_Not anymore though, Lydecker._

_We are people now and no longer your puppets.  
_

_**You keep watching from your picket fence  
You keep talking but it makes no sense  
You say we're not responsible  
But we are, we are  
You wash your hands and come out clean  
Fail to recognise the enemies within  
You say we're not responsible  
But we are, we are, we are, we are**_

_**It's all about power then  
Take control  
Breaking the rule  
Breaking the soul  
They suck us dry till there's nothing left  
My oh my, my oh my**_

_Damn this song is good!_

_Because that's exactly what they do!_

_And if some humanity resurfaces, they'll just laser it back out of you.  
_

_**What about the world today  
What about the place that we call home  
We' ve never been so many  
And we've never been so alone.... so alone**_

_**You keep watching from your picket fence  
You keep talking but it makes no sense  
You say we're not responsible  
But we are, we are  
You wash your hands and come out clean  
Fail to recognise the enemies within  
You say we're not responsible  
But we are, we are, we are, we are**_

_**It's all about power then (we are)  
Take control (we are)  
Breaking the rule (we are, we are)  
Breaking the soul (we are)  
They suck us dry till there's nothing left (we are, we are)  
My oh my, my oh my**_

_**We are  
We are (its all )  
We are  
We are, we are (take control)  
We are  
We are  
It's all about power  
Then take control**_

We had all stood silent watching Lydecker's face that went from anger to defiance, than sadness, remorse and finally just a blank mask.

"Alright, round up the doctors and scientists for transportation. Tie up the guards and as for Lydecker, well figure it out." Max ordered, before she ran up to me and checked me over for injuries.

Stripe knocked out Lydecker and told us she was placing him in isolation.

We nodded at her and helped tie up the guards, as the others loaded up vans with food, clothes, medicins and ofcourse our scientists.

"Is it smart taking humans into Terminal City? Those haters are always looking for another reason to hate us even more." I said to Max as we tied down the last one.

"We'll need someone to help us with some transgenic illnesses and such. As for the scientists, they might be able to figure out how to correct the Serotine deficiency overtime." Max answered as she looked at Fig for back up.

"Actually, I'm with Alec on this one. I don't think it's a good idea kidnapping humans. Because that is what they will make of it, abduction." Fig said as he clapped his big hand on her shoulder.

"Alright, tie them up then." Max reluctantly said as she turned towards Kylie who saluted her.

"All data assembled, Sir! System has been shot down as well so no trace will be left behind, Sir!" Kylie barked to which Max just rolled her eyes and I chuckled at having my old Max back and not the empty shell of her.

On the way down to TC Max explained how they had set this all up.

Liz had called headquarters in Terminal City before they came back from her mission and they discussed tactics with our soldiers in Seattle.

Once they had returned to base, they still acted like the perfect soldiers even though Max had Fig setting up meetings with all X5 units. They secretely discussed the mutiny and by the second day final plans were already made. They had the X6's shut down all camera's, while they overpowered the guards. Lydecker came out as expected, believing there was some foreign attack going on, while it was the enemy within he needed to worry about.

Their men from TC were ordered to get out everyone that was held in isolation or going through indoctrination. Those from Psy-Ops were already in the know and had released their patients before a rescue team could come in.

_All in all, a genius plan by my equally genius mate._

As we neared the gates to Terminal City I wondered why it was so quiet and Stripe informed me how the protests and fights between the groups had gotten so bad that there had been some court orders issued forbidding Ordinaries to come within 6 miles of Terminal City, leaving us more freedom to get in and out undetected.

I smiled as I thought of all the possibilities and a hard slap to the back of my head wiped that smile right off of my face.

"There will be no visits to the Blowfish, Crash or anything else you might have had in mind!" Max snapped from next to me and my eyes widened at her ability to seemingly read my mind.

"But Maxie-" I started, but she cut me off right there.

"But Maxie nothing! You and I are too well known out there to show our faces. End of discussion." She said as the gates closed behind us and we were finally home.

A sharp gasp from behind me got my attention and I looked behind me to see Kylie reading a file she had stolen from Manticore with watery eyes. As she looked up to me and her eyes flickered between me and Max I didn't need to think again to know what file she had in her hands.

I shook my head very lightly so it wouldn't be noticable to the others, but so that Kylie would know not to mention it. I wanted to tell Max myself and right now was not the time.

She would turn the van around, drive straight back to Manticore and chase a bullet through Lydecker's head. Not that he didn't deserve it, but that was a job for me and a promise I had made that I would not back down from.

I could have done it easily back at Manticore, but then Max would have questions about it and she needed some time to be thriumphant, happy and carefree.

She had been through so much lately, that I needed to grant her this time, before dropping the worse bomb ever on her.

I just hoped she wouldn't hate me for not being able to save our baby or that she wouldn't beat herself up about it too much.

_Only time will tell._

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**Let me know.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	22. Chapter 22 : Cheating

**I do not own Dark Angel**

**Thanks for all your reviews and those that went to read my DA one shots, a big kiss to you guys :)**

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**Cheating : Max's point of view**

We were all feeling exceptionally thriumphant as we drove through the gates of Terminal City and I could see Stripe's mind working as she made a mental list of songs she wanted to play today.

"Don't we need hard liquor to celebrate?" Gent asked as we all descended the vans and headed for the common area. He stopped where he was standing and I stopped walking to, turning towards him. I looked over at him as I tried to decide whether or not this was a good idea. It's not like we could buy out an entire liquor store and since we were transgenics with an extremely high metabolism we would need rivers of alcohol to get festively drunk.

"We'll rob one." Stripe said as she moved next to Gent to form a team of two, but before I could protest Stripe was already pleading her case.

"With the humans at a distance we can easily get away and back unseen. One van should be able to transport enough liquor to get us all drunk. Aren't you even a little bit curious what it feels like?" I nodded at her question, but she took it as permission and before I could even say another word, they were already in the van screeching back out of Terminal City.

"Shit!" I cursed as I lost visibility of them and paced around the garage, worrying about all the things that could turn this little heist into a major disaster.

"I didn't know you had it in you, Maxie." Alec said as he grinned at me like the Cheshire cat.

"Don't call me that." I spat as I slapped the back of his head and turned to join the others in the common area.

"Sorry, I forgot." Alec mumbled from behind me and as I looked into his gorgeous green eyes I could see his general concern for me. I smiled softly at him and he visibly relaxed his stance in relief.

"Max,...I need to...No, maybe..." Alec's troubled look and the way he kept fumbling with words had me on high alert instantly. I glanced around to see that everything was secure and after checking all the exit and entry points twice, I sighed in relief and looked back up at him.

"What is it, Alec? Spit it out." I said as moved closer to him and his arms automatically went around my waist. As I tried to mold myself into his embrace I could feel the tension in his body and I looked up at him awaiting his response.

"Nothing, I'll tell you some other time. Let's just have fun tonight, alright?" Alec almost looked pleading as he stared into my eyes with such need, not a need one could mistake for desire, but a need for me to agree and to let this one go, for now.

I nodded before kissing him softly on the lips, then I followed him to a round table where Dix, Luke and Mole where playing poker. We pulled out some cash and joined them.

I had the first three winning hands, which made me a little giddy inside as I kept pulling more money towards me. As I folded with my fourth hand, I glanced over at Kylie, who was looking at Alec with a furrowed brow.

_What's her dealio?_

_Why is she looking at Alec like that?_

_Oh God! _

_He wanted to tell me something before!_

_Oh no he didn't!_

_The bastard!_

_Cheating on me!?!_

I rose from the table as anger flooded every part of my body as I gathered my money and refused to make eyecontact with Alec.

The sound of my boots echoed as I stormed through the common area, the entire room deadly silent at my sudden fury. I raced up the stairs and towards the roof, where I sat down underneath Joshua's flag, my head hung low as an unfamiliar pain threatened to rip me in half.

_When had it happened?_

_Surely not while we were at Manticore._

_Before?_

_Why?_

_What did I do wrong?_

_No, I'm refusing to think like that._

_It's his fault and his fault only._

_Cheating bastard!_

_I should have known he couldn't keep his dick in his pants for too long._

_Our X5 playboy._

_I've been such a fool!_

I was interrupted from my mental ranting as the door leading to the roof opened and a loud song directed to Lydecker no doubt sounded from dowstairs, alerting me to the return of Stripe and Gent.

_**Buddy you're a boy make a big noise  
Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day  
You got mud on yo' face  
You big disgrace  
Kickin' your can all over the place  
Singin'  
**_

I turned to see who had intruded on my personal space and my eyes blazed as I saw Alec standing there looking all kinds of nervous.

I got to my feet quickly and walked towards the door, not bothering to acknowledge his presence as I sidestepped him and moved around him quickly.

_**  
We will we will rock you  
Sing it  
We will we will rock you**_

_**Buddy you're a young man hard man  
Shouting in the street gonna take on the world some day  
You got blood on yo' face  
You big disgrace  
Wavin' your banner all over the place**_

I could hardly hear him calling my name as he followed me through the common area where almost everyone was singing on the top of their lungs, but somehow I still heard him.

I suspected it was because I had become so in tune with him over time that I could even pick up the softest of whispers coming from him.

_**We will we will rock you  
Sing it  
We will we will rock you**_

_**Buddy you're an old man poor man  
Pleadin' with your eyes gonna make  
You some peace some day  
You got mud on your face  
Big disgrace  
Somebody betta put you back into your place**_

I slammed the door to my office shut behind me and quickly turned the lock before sitting down in my leather chair and letting my head rest on my hands. 

_**We will we will rock you  
Sing it  
We will we will rock you  
Everybody  
We will we will rock you  
We will we will rock you  
Alright**_

Alec must have been held up for a while, because it took him untill the outro of the song to reach my office, where he started banging on the door as he pleaded with me to open the door.

I listened to his shouts and the banging on the door for well over an hour, untill I couldn't just sit there in silence anymore.

"Why don't you go back to Kylie, I'm sure she'll be able to comfort you!" I shouted from my side of the door as I felt my heart shattering as soon as I acknowledged the situation with my words.

"That's it, Max! I'm breaking down this door!" Alec yelled a second before his foot connected with my door and it came off his hinges.

"You think I'm cheating on you?" A peculiar hurt combined with white hot anger on his handsome face. I swallowed thickly as I turned my gaze to his army boots and nodded curtly.

"That's ridiculous! Why would I do that? Would I have gone through all that shit if you were so easy to replace in my book? No! I would have dropped you off in front of Manticore and hightailed my ass out of there, but I stayed! For you! I almost attacked your CO, for you! I nearly got my ass arrested for stalking, all for you! I LOVE you, Max!!" Each word was a shout, but the sincerity was evident in his eyes and although I should have been happier than ever, my mind wouldn't allow me to feel even a second of happiness.

_If he is not cheating, than what could be so awful that he hesitates to tell me?_

_This is my smart aleck for God's sake!_

_And he has never refrained to say exactly what was on his mind, however awful._

_This is bad, real bad!!_

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**Alec will tell her in the next chapter.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	23. Chapter 23 : One Word

**Disclaimer : I don't own Dark Angel**

**Thanks for the reviews xxx**

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**One word : Alec's point of view**

I looked at her long and hard as she stood in front of me with a solemn expression on her face after I told her that I in fact did not cheat on her with Kylie. Seeing how she didn't express any emotion had me worried whether or not she actually believed me. I was also getting angry at her for her lack of faith in me and how easy it had been for her to jump to such conclusions.

"What is it then?" Max asked with a hint of fear in her voice and I instantly softened, knowing what I had to tell her. I would chew out her ass for not trusting me later.

"I don't even know where to start." I sighed, shaking my head as I let my body slid to the floor.

"How about you start at the beginning?" She said with attitude as she cocked her eyebrow at me, but it did nothing to lighten the mood.

I tried to sort out the words in my head before I spoke them aloud, but that single word in that damn file just kept flashing in frong of my eyes as I swallowed thickly.

"You were dying, Max and I couldn't let that happen. I would do anything for you, you should know that. So when you passed out, I took you back to Manticore hoping they could save you before it was too late. I wasn't even thinking of myself, I only had to make sure you lived." I was looking pleadingly into her eyes as guilt washed over me. If I had protected her better, our child might have been alive. Instead, I let them take me away so they could treat me as well. I took a shuddering breath as I cast my eyes to the floor and prepared myself for Max's wrath that would surely come.

"I didn't know what they had done to you untill you had already left for your mission. Max,...they took...they aborted our child." I nearly choked on the words as I forced them out and bile started to rise in my throat as the reality of the situation crashed into me once more.

Max was silent for a while as she stood shell shocked in front of me, her eyes vacant as she looked right through me. Her scream was so suddenly it made me jump and I rushed forwards to take her in my arms.

"NO! Don't touch me!" She screamed as she broke free from me and took several steps back.

"Why would you tell me these things!? Don't lie to me, Alec!" She yelled as she pointed an accusatory finger at me, but her eyes betrayed her anguish and even though she tried to resist the notion that this easily could have happened, her heart already knew. Max always did wear her heart on her sleeve in a way, since she never could hide her feelings. One look into those beautiful eyes and you could tell exactly what she was feeling, not to mention the empathic ability Manticore had given me as they created me, made it impossible for her to hide her true emotions.

"Please! Please, tell me it's not true. Please,..." Her voice broke, leaving her final plea unfinished as she slid down to the floor and hid her face from me.

I rushed forward again and pulled her into my arms, this time she didn't fight me as she lifted her face and blankly stared out in front of her. Chills ran down my spine at the sight of her and for the first time, she truly looked Manticore. I didn't count the time we were in there last, since it wasn't really Max then, but a reprogrammed 452. Now, she was really herself and that empty emotionless mask was scaring me. I gripped her tighter, trying to comfort her and myself as our warm skin touched, but Max seemed to be unaware of my presence.

"When?" The single word was a whispered question as her gaze didn't waver from the empty air in front of her.

"Your heat." I said simply and she nodded, knowing as well as I that X5 females where especially fertile around that time. She jumped to her feet quickly and started pacing like a caged animal as her emotions started to become less and less controlled with each second that passed.

"I'll kill him!" She suddenly spat as her fist came down onto her desk hard, breaking the wooden piece of furniture in half. I grabbed her from behind to restrain her and hummed soothingly, untill I could slowly feel her relax against me.

"He's mine, Max. I vowed it the second I read that awful word and you will not take away the satisfaction of revenging my family." I said in a commanding voice as I still her close against my body. I knew she wanted to do it herself and that she was stubborn as hell, but I had used my Alpha tone as I commanded my mate. She wouldn't do anything reckless now and so I let her go as she ran up the stairs to her safe haven.

Everyone was looking curiously at me as I headed over to Joshua, their eyes burning holes in my back as I silently walked past them.

"Medium fella alright?" Joshua's eyes betrayed the concern he felt as he looked straight into the soul of me or so it felt anyway.

"No, Josh. Nothing's alright." I said as I slumped down in the seat next to him.

Joshua's brow furrowed as his big hand came out to touch my forehead.

"Not right. Alec supposed to say Alec is always alright." Joshua remarked and I lowered my gaze to my lap as debated whether or not I was in shape to tell yet another person about the tragedy that had occured while we were back inside that hell hole.

I decided against it and made idle chit chat with Joshua about his paintings and my bike.

I noticed an hour had passed and so I headed up the stairs to find Max.

As I opened the door I could hear her singing and not wanting to disturb her, I sat down with crossed legs in front of the door.

_**I close my eyes**_  
_**And imagine you're here**_  
_**Did it all seem so hopeless**_  
_**Given the chance**_  
_**I would ask**_  
_**Forgive me**_  
_**I didn't do a thing to make you stay**_  
_**I didn't say a word to make you stay**_  
_**If I would have known**_  
_**Could I have tried to make it easier**_  
_**But I didn't do a thing**_  
_**Or say a word**_  
_**One word**_

_**And I don't know why you're gone, now you're gone**_  
_**No beautiful goodbye**_  
_**You will never leave my mind**_  
_**And it turns out to be so much different than our dreams**_  
_**Now you're, you're a star in heaven**_

_**My thoughts unsaid**_  
_**Stuck in my head**_  
_**And it all feels so useless**_  
_**Never forget to give all I have**_  
_**Forgive me**_  
_**I couldn't do a thing to make you stay**_  
_**And I couldn't say a word to make you stay**_  
_**If I could have known**_  
_**Could I have tried to make it easier**_  
_**But I couldn't do a thing**_  
_**Or say a word**_  
_**One word**_

_**And I don't know why you're gone, now you're gone**_  
_**No beautiful goodbye**_  
_**You will never leave my mind**_  
_**And it turns out to be so much different than our dreams**_  
_**Now you're, yeah you're a star in heaven**_

_**Still I don't know why you're gone, now you're gone**_  
_**No beautiful goodbye**_  
_**You will never leave my mind**_  
_**And it turns out to be so much different than our dreams**_  
_**Now you're, you're a star in heaven**_  
_**You're a star in heaven now**_  
_**You're a star in heaven**_  
_**Yeah you're my star**_

Tears were streaming down her face as I got up, knowing the song was finished and moved to sit beside her. Finally, she curled her body into my side and took comfort from me and even though it was a small consolation, it made my heart swell for a moment taking comfort in her embrace as well. We would need eachother to get past this and now, we were taking a step in the right direction.

She cried for over an half an hour as she leaned against me and I never had the urge to stop her, she needed to get this out sooner or later anyway.

I just held on tightly so she would know that I would never let her go and would always do my best to be there for her.

As she hiccuped a little, the last tears drying on her face she looked up at me with a stern look on her face.

"Just for the record, Max Guevara does not sing!" She said in a strict voice that had me nodding instantly. She had a beautiful voice, but if she didn't want to share it with anyone else, I was certainly not going to push her. Besides, I kind of loved the fact that she had sung in my presence and somehow it felt like our little secret.

I kissed her gently on the forehead, before we headed downstairs, our hands tightly clasped together as we formed a united front.

"We WILL get past this." I said just before we came into view of the others and Max sighed softly, looking up at me with sad, yet hopeful eyes.

"We will." I repeated a little softer this time and even though she did not respond to me, I knew this time she was at least believing a small part of it.

It was written in her eyes. With Max every answer could always be found in those gorgeous eyes. Eyes my son or daughter could have possibly inherited, if only given the chance.

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**Emotional chapter.**

**It was really hard to write.**

**I hope I managed to pull it off.**

**Let me know.**

**Review please.**

**Love, **

**Shirley**


	24. Chapter 24 : Hunt

**Diclaimer : I don't own Dark Angel**

**Sorry it took me this long to update, I've had some troubling overcoming my Writer's Block. I hope you guys aren't too mad at me right now. Also I want to thank you guys for reviewing.**

**Thanks for sticking by me.**

**There is a major time gap, but it just fit the story in my opinion. We are fast forwarding to a year after that night on the roof.**

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**Hunt : Alec's point of view**

Today was the one year anniversary of our break up. The day she couldn't stand to look at me any longer and practically kicked me out of Terminal City. Max and I had started to drift apart ever since I told her about the baby. First, we clung to each other as the news settled in. As soon as the shock started to wear off, the blame started to seep in. She blamed me for not stopping them and I blamed her for...I don't even know why. We didn't really say the words, but you could see it from the way we acted around each other and ofcourse Max's eyes were always a dead give away.

I put the safety on before putting my gun in the back of my pants and started up my bike. It took me about ten minutes to drive to the Reno police station and once there I took my time observing the cops. Getting the lay out of the place, I noticed they rarely used the side entrance and so that would be the perfect place to sneak in.

As the sky darkened, I made my move. I made sure my bike was out of sight and slowly crept closer to the station. My eyes kept flickering between the front entrance and the back of the building, knowing that those were the two most likely angles to get caught from. Ever since we fought back to back that night, Stripe and I had gotten good friends and she had rubbed off on me with her need for music during the most dangerous moments.

I turned on my Ipod and scrolled down to the song Stripe compared me with.

Smiling softly, I headed inside, without anyone noticing me.

_**Sick boy, in his faded blue jeans**_  
_**sick boy black leather jacket scene**_  
_**sick boy, he's also in trouble with the law**_  
_**don't you know...ooh aaaa ooooh**_

_**sick boy, he carried a switchblade knife**_  
_**sick boy, likes to get into fights**_  
_**sick boy, he'll go drinkin with the boys**_  
_**all night long, ooh aa oooooooh**_

_**sick boy, nah nah nah nah**_  
_**sick boy, ooh aa oooh**_  
_**sick boy, nah nah nah nah**_  
_**sick boy, oooh aaa oooooh**_

_**sick boy, he rides a big motorbike**_  
_**sick boy, he combs his hair up just right**_  
_**sick boy, with tattoos up and down his arms**_  
_**don't you know, ooh aaa oooh**_

_**sick boy, he's got a girl wrapped around his arm**_  
_**sick boy, with his street-like charm**_  
_**sick boy, he'll make love to her all night**_  
_**don't you know, ooh aaa oooooh**_

_**sick boy, nah nah nah nah**_  
_**sick boy, ooh aa oooh**_  
_**sick boy, nah nah nah nah**_  
_**sick boy, oooh aaa oooooh**_

_**He's a sick boy.**_

_**Such a sick boy.**_

_**We're all sick boys**_

_**I'm a sick boy**_

_**Nah nah nah nah naaaaaah**_

I was standing bent over the computer, watching the latest images of the hooverdrome, when a big muscled man came walking in, eating a donut and seemingly not having a care in the world. Finally taking notice of me, he put the donut on the desk to his left and headed over to me. I grinned cockily at this stupid cop for thinking he could defeat me.

His hand moved to his belt and I knew I had mere seconds before his gun was pointed straight at my head. Just then an image of Lydecker came onto the screen, he was standing in front of the local bank. I smiled as I pressed the button to delete my search history and at the same time drew my gun with the other hand. The cops eyes widened as I cocked my gun, having it already pointed straight at his head while he was still lifting his hand.

"Drop it." I said in an low and menacing voice, making him gulp visibly. Sweat appeared on his brow and the gun dropped from his hand.

"Smart move." I commented, before blurring over to him and hitting him on the head with the my gun. As his body slumped down, I headed back out the same way I had gotten in.

As soon as I got back to my bike, I pulled out a map of the area, circling the bank. Lydecker thought he was being smart, figuring I would go looking at the hotels nearest to the bank, but he taught us too well. Finding the hotel furthest away from this specific bank, I kickstarted my bike and sped over to the crappy motel.

The neon sign was flickering, until it died entirely. Complete darkness cloaked the motel from any bypasser's view. All but me. My enhanced eyesight could make out every tiny detail as I snuck into the office. The clerk already sleeping or completely unaware of my presence kept out of the way in his tiny living room. I flipped through the pages quickly, until I spotted Deck's handwriting. He had singned in using a fake name naturally, but I would recognize his penmanship everywhere. Too neat, too formal.

_**Room 13**_ was written next to it in a messy scrawl, definitely the keeper's. I smiled at the irony of him staying in a room with an unlucky number.

_His luck has run out for sure._

_**There's a taste in my mouth that I never had before**_  
_**To be a cheater, defeater, are things I won't ignore**_  
_**Like a rat in a trap your head got in the way**_  
_**Nothing left of you, but a memory of a bad lay**_

_**Heads gonna roll (Heads gonna roll)**_  
_**I'm back in control (back in control)**_  
_**It's a jungle out there it's gonna eat you up**_  
_**And strip you bare**_  
_**I'll swallow you whole (swallow you whole)**_  
_**Then spit out your soul (spit out your soul)**_  
_**I wanna make this clear, my dear that heads will roll**_

I kicked in the door, revealing a startled Lydecker as his bottle of Scotch hit the floor and his other hand shakily moved towards the gun on the night stand. I grinned cockily at the old man, his reflexes too slow for my enhanced speed.

_**There's a look in your eyes, am I the one you dread?**_  
_**You make me wonder what's going on inside your head**_  
_**(Inside your head)**_  
_**You lie and you slither like a cold-blooded snake**_  
_**I'll make you pay for your big mistake**_

My eyes narrowed as his fingers slowly grasped the gun and in the blink of an eye I stood in front of him, holding his wrist in my iron grip.

I slammed his hand against the night stand repeatedly, until he lost hold of the weapon

_**Heads gonna roll (Heads gonna roll)**_  
_**I'm back in control (back in control)**_  
_**It's a jungle out there it's gonna eat you up**_  
_**And strip you bare**_  
_**I'll swallow you whole (swallow you whole)**_  
_**Then spit out your soul (spit out your soul)**_  
_**I wanna make this clear, my dear that heads will roll**_

"Please, Alec. I saved her and you...so many times. Please, don't kill me." Lydecker pleaded for his life over and over again, but his pleas were left unheard as my hand moved around his throat. I didn't even need to use that much force as I watched the light of his life burn out in his eyes. His body slumped against the wall as I released him after passing out.

**_When I think of you, I think of this_**  
**_And then it turns to bitterness_**  
**_I'm praying for amnesia, I beg for anesthesia_**

**_Forget the lies, and numb the pain_**  
**_If this don't stop I'll go insane_**  
**_The more I hurt, the more I'll curse your name_**

I tied him down to a chair, memories of my mate and the unborn child he sentenced to death, twirling around in my mind.

_**H****eads gonna roll (Heads gonna roll)**_  
_**I'm back in control (back in control)**_  
_**It's a jungle out there it's gonna eat you up**_  
_**And strip you bare**_  
_**I'll swallow you whole (swallow you whole)**_  
_**Then spit out your soul (spit out your soul)**_  
_**I wanna make this clear, my dear that heads will roll**_

I splashed water into his face to wake him up, making his eyes flutter a couple of times, but consciousness eluded him.

_**Heads gonna roll (Heads gonna roll)  
I'm back in control (back in control)  
It's a jungle out there it's gonna eat you up  
And strip you bare  
I'll swallow you whole (swallow you whole)  
Then spit out your soul (spit out your soul)  
I wanna make this clear, my dear that heads will roll**_

__He squinted as awareness started to come to him and then his eyes widened as he noticed me pacing a couple of steps away from him.

"Welcome back, sunshine! It's a nice day for some torture, wouldn't you agree?" I said in an overly cheerful tone, while smiling wickedly at the man, who had ruined us in so many ways.

_It sure was a perfect day for torturing._

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**Reviews please.**

**Love,**

**Shirley**


	25. Chapter 25 : Indifference?

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel, only the evil plot bunnies running around in my head.**

**I'm so very sorry for making you guys wait this long. Inspiration for this fic was like zero, nada, nothing at all! But finally I got my LMOOTD muse back.**

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**Song to accompany this chapter : Someday - Nickelback**

_**How the hell did we wind up like this?  
Why weren't we able, to see the signs that we missed  
And try to turn the tables**_

_**I wish you'd unclench your fists, and unpack your suitcase  
Lately there's been too much of this  
But don't think it's too late**_

_**Nothing's wrong, just as long as  
You know that someday I will**_

_**Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when**_

_**Well I'd hope that since we're here anyway  
That we could end up saying  
Things we've always needed to say  
So we could end up staying  
Now the story's played out like this  
Just like a paperback novel  
Let's rewrite an ending that fits  
Instead of a Hollywood horror**_

_**Nothing's wrong, just as long as  
You know that someday I will**_

_**Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
**_

**_How the hell did we wind up like this?  
Why weren't we able, to see the signs that we missed  
And try to turn the tables  
Now the story's played out like this  
__Just like a paperback novel  
Let's rewrite an ending that fits  
Instead of a Hollywood horror_**

**_Nothing's wrong, just as long as  
You know that someday I will_**

**_Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
Someday, somehow  
I'm gonna make it all right but not right now  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
I know you're wondering when  
You're the only one who knows that  
I know you're wondering when _**

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**Indifference : Max's point of view **

Things were falling apart fast around here without Alec. I had never expected his presence and support to be so important to me, to all of us. Yet it was. It almost seemed as if he was the glue that kept us together, the foundations upon which we had built our little TC home.

"Max, we need some food. There isn't enough to last us the day, let alone the week." Stripe said, gently placing a hand on my shoulder.

After Alec had left, I had appointed her as my second in command. She tried, but she was no Alec.

"I wished Alec was still here." Mole whispered, regrettably loud enough for me to hear and I gave him one of my famous death glares.

He just turned his head and ignored me, pretending to be wrapped up in his poker game.

I sat back and involuntarily my mind went back to that dark day.

_Flashback_

_Alec stood in front of me with a worried expression, his dirty, blonde hair a mess from running his hands through it too much._

"_Max, do we have enough tranquilizers? Five of the X5's will be going in heat soon." One single question and I was once again overwhelmed by the pain of losing my baby. I nodded my head weakly, before letting my body slide down the wall. Once I found myself sitting on the ground, I raised my hands to bury my face in them. _

"_Aw baby, you can't keep going on like this." Alec said, his voice underlaced with concern for me._

"_It's been six months already. You need to let go." I don't know why, but his words made me so angry. It almost seemed like he didn't care. As if this all had been some bad dream, he could easily forget about._

"_Get away from me." I snapped, as his hand brushed against my arm. _

_He looked taken aback, but wasn't fazed as he tried to pull me into his arms._

"_I said Get Away From Me!" I emphasized each word as if he were a two year old that didn't understand plain English._

_I could see the hurt in Alec's eyes as he took a couple of steps back. He fidgeted uncomfortably with his shirt, something he never did and then he ran out of my office. He didn't even run, he actually blurred. _

_For about an hour I didn't move from the spot, until I could feel myself calm down again. Thinking I was finally alright and could handle the rest of the day, I stepped outside. TC was in disarray, everyone had tossed whatever belongings they were holding to the side and were rushing outside. _

_Curiosity got the better off me and I followed them. _

_There stood Alec, all dressed up in leather, sunglasses on his face and standing proudly against his motorcycle. A duffle bag was tied to the back of it. _

_A lump formed in the back of my throat as I stumbled my way forward. _

"_Wh-where are you going?" I asked, looking up into those beautiful green eyes._

"_Away from here," he answered flippantly, as he swung one of his strong legs over the bike and revved the engine. _

"_You can't leave!" I shouted and his eyes, that had been checking the fuel meter, snapped back to me. _

"_I can't? Oh, I thought you wanted me to get away from you?" He mocked me, he fucking mocked me and finally I snapped again. _

"_I do! You are a coward, a nuisance and a danger magnet! Who needs you? We'll all be better off when you're gone!" I screamed in his face. I could hear the mumbles behind me, but ignored them, focusing solely on Alec. He moved to get off his bike as his mask slipped and his pain was plain to see. _

"_Oh Max, I'm so sorry." Finally, getting off his bike, he wrapped his big, warm arms around me and for a second I sighed in relief. Only a second though, because his words earlier haunted my mind again._

_He never really cared about the baby._

_That's why he didn't stop Lydecker._

_Maybe, he even put him up to it._

_No, Alec would never do that. _

_He wants to avenge our baby._

_He said Lydecker was his._

_But maybe he's protecting him._

_It has been six months and he still hasn't gone after Lydecker._

_Don't think that way._

_No? Then why is he running just now?_

_I took a couple of steps back, pulling myself out of his embrace. Looking up, I saw that Manticore mask firmly in place and cursed myself for not being better at conceiling my emotions. Alec had me beat in that department for sure. _

"_The baby...did..." I was hesitant to ask, but a growl cut me off noner the less. _

"_When are you going to let that go, Max? It happened, it can't be undone! Why are you torturing yourself like this? Torturing me? Goddammit!" Alec kicked his bike, but held onto it at the same time. _

"_I knew you didn't care! You heartless bastard! Did you plan this with Lydecker?" I shouldn't have said it. I knew I shouldn't have, but it slipped out anyway. _

_A palm connected to my cheek, not my own though and looking up I could see Alec's eyes flash with anger. _

"_Did you just bitchslap me, you motherfucker?" I screamed, kicking him in the chest and sending him flying over his bike. _

"_Don't ever come back here, if you know what's good for you. I hate you and regret the day we mated!" With those words I turned on my heel and headed inside. I went up to my office and looked out of the window. I could see him standing there, shell shocked and almost in some sort of trance. His face was void of any emotions, but his movements were sluggish and sometimes his eyes flickered with some kind of wonder. He seemed lost. _

_Stripe walked in after me and pulled me away from the window. Her small arms went around my neck as she pulled my face down to her body. I didn't know tears had started to run down my face, until a strangled sob sounded from deep within my chest. _

"_Ssh, he'll be back. You both just need some time to cool off." She tried to soothe, but if I knew anything, Alec was a proud man. As I was a stubborn woman. _

_I didn't believe her, but I didn't object to her warm embrace or soothing words. I needed them. _

_In less than an hour, everything I had built for myself had come crumbling down. _

_Was it my fault?_

_Perhaps._

_But it was one of those things that were unavoidable and somewhere in the back of my mind, I had been preparing for this day all along. _

_Grief makes angry and angry makes stupid. _

_We couldn't have changed the path we were on with all the money or love in the world. _

_It was meant to happen._

_Those were my last thoughts, as I surrendered to Stripe and my body slumped against her. _

_She held me the rest of the day and the night that followed._

_It was eye – opening, because now I knew, she was a true friend._

_Something rare, yet oh so beautiful._

_End flashback._

"Alright, people, we need some food." I said as I walked in the control room.

"What can you tell me?"

Luke went on to explain about delivery dates and the levels of security each and every store held, before we decided on robbing the one in sector three.

I sent out a team of four and waited patiently for them to come back.

As I listened to them in the control room, I couldn't help but think back of all the missions I had done with Alec in the past. We were really a great team, even if we always managed to fuck up our personal lives. On the field, we were amazing together. We had had our share of cuts and burns, but we always had each other's backs.

I missed Alec, I really did. I wouldn't admit it to anyone, but I felt empty inside. Whether it was the mating thing or just his overwhelming absence, it hurt like hell and I didn't know how much longer I could bear the pain.

Closing my eyes, I tried to block out the thoughts and the pain.

I needed to be levelheaded for my team out there.

After an hour I couldn't take the silence anymore. The doubts and the emptiness was wearing down on me and I did the one thing I never thought I would.

I dialed Alec's number.

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**I want to apologise once again. **

**I hope you won't lynch me for making you wait so long.**

**I'll do my best not to let this happen again.**

**Review please.**

**And thank you for sticking by me. **

**Lots of love,**

**Shirley**


	26. Chapter 26 : Lydecker

**Disclaimer : I do not own Dark Angel**

**I know it's been ages, and I am truly sorry. I have been so blocked for this fic, but you guys can't keep waiting forever, so I'm going to try and get this chapter out. **

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**Song to accompany chapter : Green Day - Know your Enemy**

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Violence is an energy  
Against the enemy  
Violence is an energy**_

_**Bringing on the fury  
The choir infantry  
Revolt against the honor to obey**_

_**Overthrow the effigy  
The vast majority  
We're burning down the bargain of control**_

_**Silence is the enemy  
Against your urgency  
So rally up the demons of your soul**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**The Insurgency will rise  
When the blood's been sacrificed  
Don't be blinded by the lies  
In your eyes**_

_**Violence is an energy  
From here to eternity  
Violence is an energy  
Silence is the enemy  
So gimme gimme revolution!**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Do you know the enemy?  
Do you know your enemy?  
Well, gotta know the enemy**_

_**Overthrow the effigy  
The vast majority  
We're burning down the bargain of control**_

_**Silence is the enemy  
Against your urgency  
So rally up the demons of your soul **_

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**Lydecker : Alec's point of view**

I watched his face as the blade pressed into his arm. The twitch of his eyes and pursing of his lips were sufficient to know he was experiencing pain. He might have been trained to handle torture well, but this wasn't for information. This was revenge and I would make him scream. If it was the last thing I did. Although, breaking him would give me all the more satisfaction.

Picking up the bottle of Scotch from the floor, I smiled. There was still enough for me to use and I didn't hesitate, pouring some of the burning liquid on his freshly cut wounds. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding together as he held back the scream dying to get out.

"What's the matter, Deck? Don't you like that?" I taunted, circling him and checking over the binds that held him. With his experience, it wouldn't surprise me that he would find a way out of them. However, they were still bound tightly and escape would be impossible.

I grabbed a chair and sat down across from him, glaring at him. He didn't answer, just stared back at me with that stubborn, hard and uncaring look on his face. I didn't let it get to me. The days, where he could instill fear into my heart, had passed and now, he was nothing but an old bastard. A scum bag who had destroyed the happiness after years of torture, misery and emptiness. An evil son of a bitch, who had taken my child, and by doing so my mate, away from me.

When I got tired of watching him, I started to cut into him again. Inch by inch, I explored his skin to find the most suitable and sensitive areas, which would make lesser people howl in pain. Pouring Scotch into the wounds, didn't seem to be effective enough, so I added in some salt.

Breaking Deck wasn't as easy as I had thought. But then again, he had trained us all those years, telling us how to stay focused and not to crack under pressure. I should have known he'd give me more trouble than he was worth. It had been hours already, and still he wouldn't give me an inch. The defiance in his eyes remained, and still he hadn't screamed.

Thankfully though, I had one big advantage. I _knew_ him. He could give me the stink eye all he wanted, but his weakness and mine were the same. I had consciously steered away from the subject, not wanting to loose the upper hand, but if it came down to it, I would use _her_.

"You are not being a soldier, Alec. You're letting your emotions guide you. That's not how you were trained," Deck said, adding fuel to an already blazing fire. He had only said one thing in hours, and I just wanted him to shut up already. Letting my anger control me, I punched him over and over again. My arms blurred with the force and speed behind the punches, and although I knew I should have stopped, I didn't. I noticed his body going limp on the chair again and his head swaying further back as his body offered no more resistance, yet that little fact didn't catch up to my brain. All I saw was the monster that had killed my child.

Only when my phone rang out above my I-pod, did I pause.

Annoyed, I grabbed it and flipped it open without looking, before practically growling, "What?"

I didn't know what I was expecting, but I was most definitely not expecting to hear her beautiful, soft voice as she hesitantly told me, "_Hi, Alec."_

"Max?"

Sinking down onto the bed, I tried to control my emotions. Deck shouldn't be given too much ammo against me, but this was Max we were talking about. All the pain, the love, the anger, the fear and desperation passed my face, and I couldn't for the love in me compose myself. Looking up, I sighed in relief at the sight of Deck passed out.

"_Yeah, it's me,"_ she answered in a mere whisper, and I closed my eyes at the sound of it.

I had missed her so much, but had been too proud to give in before her. After all she had kicked me out and should be the first one to make a move. Finally, she had. And at an excellent time too. She contacted me right when my revenge was in the palm of my hand. I had Deck tied to a chair and tonight he would meet his maker. And tomorrow, I would see Max again.

"How are you?"

"_Okay. And how have you been?"_

"Alright. I'm always alright, remember," I tried to lighten the mood, because to be honest, this entire conversation was beyond awkward.

"_Yeah..." _she trailed off uncomfortably, before finally finding her voice and cutting to the chase, _"So where are you? I want to see you." _

My mind went in a whirl, trying to come up with the scenario that led to her calling in the first place. It had been so long and surely there had to be some reason why she would suddenly call me again. Of course, I already knew that I would tell her. I couldn't deny her anything, and I probably never would be able to. Even after all this time, she was still my everything. So I swallowed down my fear, and whispered, "Merry Wink Motel, room 13 in Reno."

I hung up then, not waiting for an answer, because Deck was stirring and I needed to get a grip on myself before he woke up. Talking about her was also out of the question now. If I were to bring her up, I'd only end up making myself nervous and that was not at my tactical advantage in this case.

I needed to find another weakness of Deck, and I only knew of two more.

Deciding on which to use wasn't easy, but I finally went with the more common demon and took the bottle of Scotch into my hand.

"So you're drinking again, I see. I guess you don't have that will power you preached about at AA a while back. Must be terrible to fail like that. Can your ego even take it?" I kept going on and on, rubbing his mistake into his face.

"You are so weak, Deck," I shook my head in disappointment and got up, moving around him. "You are an embarrassment to us all."

Slapping his cheek hard, I continued by grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at me.

"You really liked it in rehab, didn't you?"

He blinked twice and his brow furrowed in confusion. He had never spoken a word about rehab, instead spouting off bullshit about how he took his life into his own hands and gave up booze on will power alone. It was pathetic really.

"That's right. You didn't think anyone would know. Well, let me tell you know..._Everyone_ knows your dirty little secret."

His eyes flashed with something, and so I continued, "You were a pitiful excuse for a soldier after your wife died, and the military sent you off to rehab. And now you relapsed. It's like poetry...for the weak...for people like you." I laughed humorlessly and cut into his back, as I passed it.

His back arched in pain, but still he didn't scream for me.

"You are so pathetic, Deck. It's almost sad to watch," with those words, I plunged the knife into the back of his knee and twisted it around. "Enslaved to the booze." I pulled it back out in one swift motion and started circling again, pleased at the grimace of pain on his face as he gritted his teeth to hold back the scream that was building up inside.

"How ironic. Here you are, the cruel son of a bitch that tortured us kids day in, day out, who murdered our children and kin, who stabbed more knives into our backs then we can count,...and you are nothing but a sweaty, stinky, slubbering drunk."

Cutting off his ear, I laughed as finally the most beautiful sound in creation reverberated throughout the room; the sound of Deck's screams for mercy.

"Beautiful," I gushed, smiling big at him and sitting down on the bed.

When his screams died out, and he passed out from loss of blood, I went into the bathroom to take a quick shower. The blood on my clothes needed to be washed out, but I'd do that after I killed the son of a bitch, because his blood would unavoidably splatter all over my clothes again. Now, I just needed to wait until he came to, so he was aware of what I was doing. I wanted him to see those images flash before his eyes as the light died in his eyes. I wanted to watch his eyes grow empty, until he would stare in all eternity. And most of all, I wanted him to know that he was dying, and by my hand.

I didn't have to wait long. As I turned off the water and got out to dry off, I heard a faint groan coming from the bedroom. The time had come and Deck would deservedly die. As I had told Max so long ago, Deck was mine.

Putting the dirty clothes back on to avoid splattering blood all over the clean white towels, I smiled. After all this time, I felt good about myself. I strode into the bedroom with certainty, still smiling brightly.

"Well, this is it, Deck. Tell your wife 'hello' for me," as I said the words, I pushed the blade against his throat and pushed. I pushed so hard that it cut right through the skin. Then I sliced sideways, effectively severing the aorta. As predicted his blood started to spray and covered my clothes with thick redness in no time.

"Bye, bye, loser."

I watched as the light died, and my smile grew bigger. Not only was I happy. Seeing our nemesis die like that, having him ripped out of our lives forever, filled me with something else. For the first time in my life, I felt...free.

* * *

**Yes! I did it! *cheers***

**I hope you liked it. Please review! **

**Lots of love, **

**Shirley**


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